by Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade

Remember the chat rooms dubbed “The Cartel” and “The Bandits Club” that contributed to felony counts against the mega Wall Street banks last May for rigging the foreign currency markets? How about that classic from the Barclays chat room trader: “if you aint cheating, you aint trying.”

Well, apparently, one or more banks are causing concerns in this area again.

Yesterday, the regulator of national banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, sent out a severe warning to its flock that there could be a five year jail sentence waiting in the wings for anyone attempting to use technology to block its mandated access to bank records. The letter was authored by Bethany Dugan, Deputy Comptroller for Operational Risk. The statement read in part:

Continue Reading at WallStreetOnParade.com…

by Alasdair MacLeod
Gold Money

Saudi Arabia has been in the news recently for several interconnected reasons. Underlying it all is a spendthrift country that is rapidly becoming insolvent.

While the House of Saud remains strongly resistant to change, a mixture of reality and power-play is likely to dominate domestic politics in the coming years, following the ascendency of King Salman to the Saudi throne. This has important implications for the dollar, given its historic role in the region.

Last year’s collapse in the oil price has forced financial reality upon the House of Saud. The young deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, possibly inspired by a McKinsey report, aims to diversify the state rapidly from oil dependency into a mixture of industries, healthcare and tourism.

Continue Reading at GoldMoney.com…

from Stefan Molyneux

by Peter Spence, Economics Correspondent
Telegraph.co.uk

The US economy has slowed to its weakest pace in two years, as plunging oil prices and global anxiety brought growth to a near standstill.

The economy grew by just 0.1pc in the first quarter of the year, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), well below the 0.4pc gain of the previous quarter, and the 0.2pc rise anticipated by analysts.

The disappointing performance marked the third straight year in which US GDP figures have missed the estimates made by forecasters. Economists attributed much of the weakness to sliding business investment, knocked by jitters over the global economy and weak oil prices.

Continue Reading at Telegraph.co.uk…

from Zero Hedge

The Census Bureau released its quarterly update on residential vacancies and homeownership for Q1 which is closely watched for its update of how many Americans own versus rent. It shows that following a modest pickup in the homeownership rate in the prior two quarters, US homeowners once again posted a substantial decline, sliding from 63.8% to 63.5%, and just 0.1% higher than the 50 year low reported in Q2 2015.

Continue Reading at ZeroHedge.com…

from Mike Maloney

by Danielle DiMartino Booth
DiMartinoBooth.com

There never was any cake, just crust.

And the French Marie had nothing to do with it. Rather, a Spanish-born queen married to France’s King Louis XIV a century earlier was the ill-mannered Marie who dared to taunt the peasantry. So how then exactly did, “Let them eat cake!” become so universally associated with Marie-Antoinette? In a nutshell: Blackmail.

Historians have uncovered the nasty truth, and it can be laid squarely at the feet some far from scrupulous London-based thugs, intent on shaking down King Louis XVI with threats to besmirch his young bride’s reputation. According to Simon Burrows of Leeds University, a criminal network, drawn to the French monarchy’s vast wealth, plotted to profit by producing a series of pamphlets filled with lies about the ill-fated queen.

Continue Reading at DiMartinoBooth.com…

by Jan Harvey
Reuters.com

After three straight years of losses, analysts are finally prepared to say gold prices have found a bottom, with rising prices seen this year and next as concerns over the pace of U.S. monetary policy tightening fade.

Gold analysts polled by Reuters have hiked their forecasts for the precious metal by nearly $100 an ounce since the start of the year after it posted its biggest quarterly rise in nearly 30 years in the three months to March.

The survey of 30 analysts at banks and trading houses carried out this month returned an average 2016 gold price forecast of $1,209 an ounce, up from $1,118 in a similar poll in January. Last year, prices averaged $1,159 an ounce.

Continue Reading at Reuters.com…

Boehner torches Cruz, says he’s ‘texting buddies’ with Trump

by Robert Schroeder
Market Watch

John Boehner sees the possibility for a big surprise at this summer’s Democratic convention if Hillary Clinton’s email scandal becomes a bigger problem.

“Don’t be shocked,” the former House speaker said at a Stanford University event on Wednesday night, “if two weeks before the convention, here comes Joe Biden parachuting in and Barack Obama fanning the flames to make it all happen.”

That’s according to the Stanford Daily, which also reported on Boehner blasting fellow Republican Ted Cruz, the Texas senator who’s battling Donald Trump and John Kasich for the GOP presidential nomination.

Boehner had these choice words for Cruz: “I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”

Continue Reading at MarketWatch.com…

from corbettreport

by Moe Zulfiqar
Profit Confidential

Buyers Disregard Gold Prices

It can’t be stressed enough: if you want to know where gold prices are going, then pay attention to buyers. Their actions suggest gold bullion prices could soar.

We are seeing a gold rush, but unfortunately it fails to get any recognition.

There are three things you must know: China remains a strong buyer, Indian’s gold demand is astonishing, and mint sales around the world are surging.

To give you some idea about the demand for gold in China, consider this: in March, the country imported 64.1 tonnes of the yellow precious metal from Hong Kong alone. In February, this figure was 42.9 tonnes—this represents an increase of close to 50% month-over-month.

Continue Reading at ProfitConfidential.com…

by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk

Reader Drew wants to know if the Khan Academy’s free education policy is socialistic.

Although unasked, the same question seems to apply to me.

Reader Drew writes …

Hi Mish

I know you are a fan of Sal Khan and Khan Academy. I’m wondering if you were aware of his background, his brilliance, and his decision to give away his courses for free.

My question is do you consider what he is doing socialism? How does one explain his decision not to use his brilliance for personal gain and instead to donate his time and energy on something he gives away for free? Isn’t that a contradiction of capitalism?

Continue Reading at MishTalk.com…

from TomWoodsTV

by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street

And sales crash.

Naples, Florida, a wealthy beach town on the Gulf of Mexico, known for its golf courses and high-end shopping, and a favorite hangout for Canadian snowbirds trying to escape their cold winters, has a problem:

Pending home sales in the first quarter plunged 23% from a year ago, according to the Naples Area Board of Realtors. Closed sales plunged 19%. Overall inventory soared 33%. In the two mid-price ranges from $300,000 to $1 million, inventory soared about 42%!

Continue Reading at WolfStreet.com…

by James Quinn
The Burning Platform

My wife got in our little Honda Insight yesterday morning at 10:00 am to run some errands. As I’ve documented before, we live in a lily white suburb with virtually no crime. She turned onto one of the two lane country roads near our house and about three miles down the road what does she encounter? A State Police checkpoint pulling over every car traveling on that sleepy country road at 10:00 am on a Wednesday. WTF???

After being my wife for 25 years she may have developed a slight anti-state, anti-police slant. It was heavily reinforced by this experience. She was asked for her papers by the donut eating, government union drone, second responder, surveillance state representative. She annoyingly asked Mr. Hero why they were doing this to moms trying to get errands done on a sunny peaceful morning. He said it was a “safety check”.

Continue Reading at TheBurningPlatform.com…

from RT

by Mark O’Byrne
GoldCore

A property bubble is developing in Ireland again. The Dublin housing market has seen residential property prices surge by 50% on average and as much as 100% in more affluent areas since the Dublin property market began to bounce in 2012.

[…] Respected Irish economist and economic commentator Colm McCarthy warned last week that “there is another house price bubble under way in the Dublin area.”

While all the focus is on the housing crisis and the rising threat of homelessness for many including families, and rightly so, less attention is being paid to the surge in prices in Dublin. Prices have risen by so much that modest 3 bed and 4 bed houses in middle class suburbs in Dublin are now unaffordable to typical middle class families.

Continue Reading at GoldGore.com…

by Global Risk Insights
Financial Sense

Hostility is building up between the US and China over trade policy, particularly with regards to Chinese steel exports. What are the political forces driving these tensions, and what are the consequences for firms and investors?

The last few months have experienced mounting trade frictions between the US and China. April, in particular, saw China initiate a number of new trade measures—with mixed consequences for bilateral trade relations. China’s changing trade policy presents potential risks and opportunities for investors and businesses with a stake in Sino-US trade.

Continue Reading at FinancialSense.com…

from Reluctant Preppers

by Jeff Berwick
Dollar Vigilante

In today’s communist-style, centrally planned world, when big central bankers meet and make decisions, no matter how small, markets quake and currencies shake. And that’s what just happened.

Bankers at both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan met in the last 12 hours to decide where they would take monetary policy next. But when they sat down to make decisions, they were faced with a classic prisoner’s dilemma: Options were precluded. There was a lot they wanted to do but little they could do.

Both the Fed and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) and the European Central Bank (ECB) as well, want to debase their respective currencies. But each wants the other to take the plunge first.

The Fed has been the least reluctant to announce easing in the past. And even Wednesday, after moving toward a tightening stance, the Fed remains vocal about potential loosening. The ECB and BoJ are more circumspect.

Continue Reading at DollarVigilante.com…

by Lee Adler
Wall Street Examiner

Greg Ip knows just enough economic conventional wisdom to be a masterful and well respected word soup chef. Today he took on an explanation of why Argentina could “create” inflation via money printing, and the Fed, ECB, and BoJ couldn’t.

He said that it was because Argentina’s central bank bought government debt directly, and the major central banks didn’t. Apparently buying government debt indirectly via third parties somehow insulates economies from having inflation. He explained it, and his bobblehead Wall Street Journal readers and fellow media word soup practitioners all shook their heads in agreement, even though they didn’t understand a word of it.

Continue Reading at WallStreetExaminer.com…

by Greg Guenthner
Daily Reckoning

Another earnings season crash landing is dragging the Nasdaq lower this week.

Victims of the tech train wreck continue to pile up. But there is one company that’s bucking the trend and blasting to new highs this week while investors are dragging its peers through the mud. More on this opportunity in just a minute…

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares plunged more than 6% Wednesday after reporting its first quarterly sales drop in 13 years. Apple’s tumble once again dragged the Nasdaq Composite into the red—while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Averages both finished the day with gains.

Cheerleading analysts were quick to point out that the iPhone 7 is just around the corner and that Apple would surely survive the setback. Just don’t tell that to investors who collectively lost approximately $48 billion yesterday…

Continue Reading at DailyReckoning.com…

from WeAreChange

from King World News

Today top Citi analyst Tom Fitzpatrick sent King World News 4 remarkable bullish charts on metals, platinum, oil and commodities.

But first, Fitzpatrick’s perfect March 9th bullish call on commodities…

Top Citi analyst Tom Fitapatrick sent KWN this note on March 9th, when he turned bullish on commodities: The Continuous Commodity Index (CCI) rallied through the top of the channel and has a reverse head and shoulders pattern that targets 395. Overall the chart below is pointing towards a positive market outlook (for commodities) (see chart below).

Continue Reading at KingWorldNews.com…

from Jesse’s Café Américain

If and when gold breaks out of this cup and handle formation, which is a matter of probability and not certainty, the next real battleground in a new bull market will be around $1550. One of the more interesting variables will be the manner of any breakout, and the ‘time’ it takes to reach a minimum measuring objective.

This is quite appropriate as 1550 marks the major support level for the channel in which gold had been moving prior to the recent bear market.

A successful cup and handle formation, should this occur, would mark a bottom for gold and quite possibly a resumption of another leg of the bull market.

It will be interesting to see how the future movement of gold as a cross to the US dollar may unfold. If the money masters were wise, they would permit it to rise back into the old trend channel and seek to find a balance in the wagers with the available physical supply.

Continue Reading at JessesCrossroadsCafe.Blogspot.ca…

from The Daily Coin.org

from Zero Hedge

Is the establishment’s fervent hatred of Donald Trump starting a U-turn? It’s still too early to know, however at least one core Republican, former house speaker John Boehner, has made it very clear he is not a fan of Ted Cruz. At all. So much so that according to NBC the former Republican House Speaker told an audience at Stanford University Wednesday that the Texas senator is “Lucifer in the flesh” and a “miserable son of a bitch.“

Continue Reading at ZeroHedge.com…

by Jon Yeomans
Telegraph.co.uk

Gold miner Petropavlovsk, which last year nearly went out of business, has staged a comeback with a brace of deals that could mark a new era for hard-pressed investors.

The Russia-focussed company, founded by Peter Hambro, scion of the family that founded City institution Hambros Bank, is to buy another gold miner in an all-share deal worth $144m (£99m), while launching a joint venture to help finish a costly processing plant.

The acquisition of Amur Zoloto will help the company “bulk up”, according to Mr Hambro, Petropavlovsk’s chairman, making it more attractive to institutional investors. “Shareholders have been keen for us to buy things… it’s to help us bulk up the maths of Petropavlovsk, and there has been a move towards consolidation in the industry.”

Continue Reading at Telegraph.co.uk…

by Chuck Butler
Daily Pfennig

Good Day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! The alarm went off this morning, which is rare for me, as I usually awake before it goes off, and I heard myself say, “I don’t want to wake up, I don’t want to go to work, I just want to stay asleep”.. Then I heard myself say, “get your rear-end up and out of bed you slacker!”… And here I am! I’m greeted by Gerry and the Pacemakers this morning, with their song: Ferry Across The Mersey… I think I’ve told you this before, but this is a song I used to sing to Alex when he was a baby/ toddler, as I rocked him to sleep, holding him. I hear this song and it reminds me of those days, when he was so young, cute, cuddly, and I could hold him in my arms while rocking him to sleep… Alex will turn 21 in June…

Continue Reading at DailyPfennig.com…

from Financial Survival Network

Professor Alain Sanders has been watching the election like the rest of us, never really sure where it’s heading.

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