![[Most Recent USD from www.kitco.com]](http://www.weblinks247.com/indexes/idx24_usd_en_2.gif)
Dear CIGAs,
Having participated in the 1970s gold bull market, I witnessed overnight money go from under 3% to over 21% as 10 year money went from under 3% to 14 7/8 %. Gold went from under $40 to $887.50.
As such, India raising its interest rate does not seem to be a reason to worry about gold. India’s move and the EU riding a bucking bronco was reason enough for a CRIMEX gold raid.
Doing the following is my suggestion during days like these.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Is this a record? Who knows, there may be more.
Bank Closing Information – March 19, 2010
These links contain useful information for the customers and vendors of these closed banks.
State Bank of Aurora, Aurora, MN
First Lowndes Bank, Fort Deposit, AL
Bank of Hiawassee, Hiawassee, GA
Appalachian Community Bank, Ellijay, GA
Advanta Bank Corp., Draper, UT
Century Security Bank, Duluth, GA
American National Bank, Parma, OH
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This is madness before destruction.
Former Lehman Executives ‘Giggle’ at ‘Nonprofessionals’ Who Think Losing Billions of Dollars Is a Big Deal
3/17/10 at 10:58 AM
How do you think former Lehman Brothers executives felt about the recently released report on the firm’s failure that reveals, among other things, the firm used a weird accounting practice known as "Repo 105" to move $50 billion of toxic mortgage assets off its books in order to make its balance sheet look healthier? Embarrassed? Regretful? Are they thinking to themselves Wow, in retrospect, that does look pretty bad. What were we thinking? Not really, no. This morning’s Post reports that former CEO Richard Fuld feels "vindicated" by the report, since Repo 105 is not illegal, but merely kind of skeazy. Others apparently feel the same way: "I’m like, whatever," a former managing director of Lehman London tells the Observer. "When I read this, I giggle a little bit, because $50 billion is a drop in the ocean."
The "yappers" who are shocked by it, he said, are merely unsophisticated "nonprofessionals" who are just looking for someone to point the finger at for the near-collapse of the financial system. But as amusing as it is, it’s also kind of sad, really, said another executive, that people are just so stupid. They’re like a bunch of animals. Like wild, ignorant bulls, starved into rage, stupidly crashing around and driving their horns into things just because they don’t know what else to do.
"They just want to be mad and don’t know what they’re talking about and want to be outraged.” After an interview, that executive sent a follow-up email comparing the widespread furor over Lehman Brothers to the groupthink that sent America into Iraq after Sept. 11.
Only a few people are smart enough to understand *the truth* of the matter, which is that ultimately bankers are smarter and better than everyone else, always have been always will be. Not that it’s fun to have this knowledge! Quite frankly, it is a terrible burden, because no matter how much you say it and how true it is, no one wants to believe you.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
China banks the US and this is not the wisest of diplomacy.
China tells Washington to cool yuan pressure
China sends trade envoy to Washington, calls on US to cool ‘emotionalization’ on currency
Joe Mcdonald, AP Business Writer, On Friday March 19, 2010, 6:37 am EDT
BEIJING (AP) — China is sending a Cabinet official to Washington in a bid to defuse trade tensions, the government said Friday, as it called on U.S. leaders to cool the "politicization and emotionalization" of a currency dispute.
A deputy commerce minister, Zhong Shan, will go to Washington on Wednesday to meet with American trade, commerce and Treasury officials and members of Congress, the Commerce Ministry said. It said they would discuss the Sino-U.S. trade gap and trade disputes.
Beijing faces demands by some U.S. lawmakers for President Barack Obama to have China declared a currency manipulator in a Treasury Department report due out next month. That could set the stage for possible trade sanctions.
Critics say China’s yuan is undervalued by up to 40 percent, giving its exporters an unfair advantage and swelling its trade surplus.
"A lot of problems can be properly solved so long as we can avoid politicization and emotionalization," a Commerce Ministry official, He Ning, told reporters. "It should not be one side pressing the other side."
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Although this statement is a reach, it does underscore the reality that the US dollar is not a safe haven.
Yuan Poised to Become Reserve Currency, Goldman’s O’Neill Says
March 18, 2010, 8:38 PM EDT
By Keith Jenkins
March 19 (Bloomberg) — China’s yuan is destined to become a global reserve currency rivaling the dollar and the euro, as the nation’s economic power increases the currency’s allure, said Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The Chinese government will “eventually” allow the yuan, or renminbi, to trade freely on foreign-exchange markets, dropping the system under which it controls its value, O’Neill wrote in an essay that formed part of a report published today for Chatham House, a London-based foreign affairs research organization.
“As China moves in this direction, other large emerging economies will presumably gradually move in the same direction and the end result will be something approximating to today’s Western monetary system,” London-based O’Neill wrote. “Under such a system, the renminbi, dollar and euro would all form the linchpin of the world’s currency markets.”
China is likely to overtake Japan as the world’s second- largest economy this year, said O’Neill, who coined the term BRICs to describe Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2001. In the next decade, along with other large emerging, the size of China’s economy will approach that of the U.S., he wrote.
The Chatham House report, which included a contribution from DeAnne Julius, a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, was titled “Beyond the Dollar: Rethinking the International Monetary System.” Among its recommendations are a multicurrency reserve system and increased use of Special Drawing Rights as a supranational currency. SDRs are a unit of account, based on a basket of currencies, used in International Monetary Fund transactions.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The Formula of 2006 grinds on as the public sleeps.
The media has put all those that listen into total denial of reality.
Gov. Barbour trims another $40.6M from FY 2010 budget
Posted: Mar 17, 2010 2:13 PM Updated: Mar 17, 2010 2:31 PM
JACKSON, MS (WLOX) – Governor Haley Barbour has ordered another $40.6 million in budget cuts for the current fiscal year after the state revenue estimating committee lowered its projection for Fiscal Year 2010. This reduction brings the total amount of cuts this year to $499.1 million.
Wednesday’s budget cuts mean nearly every state government account, except those exempt by statute, have been cut by almost 9.5 percent.
Among those cut were the budgets for the Governor’s Mansion and Governor’s Office. But a news release from Barbour pointed out "the Legislature’s budget has not been reduced, as it has exempted itself from being subjected to budget cuts."
"I must reiterate that this deficit, coupled with continued lower revenues, means we must take a serious look at how Mississippi government is structured," Governor Barbour said. "Real changes will be necessary if we are to continue providing essential services to our citizens while prudently spending our reserve funds and achieving a balanced budget."
Governor Barbour asked lawmakers to give agency heads the authority to be flexible with the additional cuts. The Senate quickly agreed, but the House did not.
More cuts loom as state faces $295m in red ink
MassHealth, other services blamed for drain on coffers
Massachusetts is potentially facing a new budget gap of up to $295 million this year, a grim forecast that state officials said could spell yet another round of painful cuts before the fiscal year ends in June.
Patrick administration officials blamed the gap on rising demand for the joint state and federal health care program for low-income residents known as MassHealth, increasing demand for homeless shelters, and on below-projected revenue from state fees and federal aid.
Massachusetts, like other states, has grappled with more than two years of declining revenue as a result of the global economic downturn, which prompted Governor Deval Patrick to make midyear budget cuts four times last fiscal year and once already this year, in October.
Jay Gonzalez, secretary of administration and finance, said that officials were monitoring the situation and that the gap could ultimately be as low as $195 million.
He said officials would decide in the next few weeks how to find savings, with the potential for further cuts and additional withdrawals from the state’s dwindling reserve fund.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Keep in mind that the Fed bailout could legally have been used not only for financial institutions but for partnerships, hedge funds and individuals.
I suspect this will reach the Supreme Court.
Federal Reserve Must Disclose Bank Bailout Records
By David Glovin and Bob Van Voris
March 19 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve Board must disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest ever U.S. government bailout, a federal appeals court said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched primarily after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The ruling upholds a decision of a lower-court judge, who in August ordered that the information be released.
The Fed had argued that it could withhold the information under an exemption that allows federal agencies to refuse disclosure of “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential.”
The U.S. Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, “sets forth no basis for the exemption the Board asks us to read into it,” U.S. Circuit Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs wrote in the opinion. “If the Board believes such an exemption would better serve the national interest, it should ask Congress to amend the statute.”
The opinion may not be the final word in the bid for the documents, which was launched by Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, with a November 2008 lawsuit. The Fed may seek a rehearing or appeal to the full appeals court and eventually petition the U.S. Supreme Court.
