from TheDollarVigilante
Seymour Hersh Says Hillary Approved Sending Libya’s Sarin to Syrian Rebels
by Eric Zuesse
Strategic Culture Foundation
The great investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, in two previous articles in the London Review of Books («Whose Sarin?» and «The Red Line and the Rat Line») has reported that the Obama Administration falsely blamed the government of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad for the sarin gas attack that Obama was trying to use as an excuse to invade Syria; and Hersh pointed to a report from British intelligence saying that the sarin that was used didn’t come from Assad’s stockpiles. Hersh also said that a secret agreement in 2012 was reached between the Obama Administration and the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to set up a sarin gas attack and blame it on Assad so that the US could invade and overthrow Assad. «By the terms of the agreement, funding came from Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar; the CIA, with the support of MI6, was responsible for getting arms from Gaddafi’s arsenals into Syria».
Deutsche Bank Unveils The Next Step: “QE Has Run Its Course, It’s Time To Tax Wealth”
from Zero Hedge
Helicopter money may be on the horizon, but if Deutsche Bank has its way, there is at least one intermediate step.
According to DB’s Dominic Konstam, now that the benefits QE “have run their course”, it is time for the next, and far more drastic step: “the ECB and BoJ should move more strongly toward penalizing savings via negative retail deposit rates or perhaps wealth taxes. With this stick would also come a carrot – for example, negative mortgage rates.”
Here is the big picture unveiling of what is coming next from Deutsche Bank’s Dominic Konstam, who is also buying the Treasury long end hand over fist:
America’s Economy Will Rebound from This False Dusk
Is the US economy suffering from “fear of Donald Trump”?
by Roger Bootle
Telegraph.co.uk
I pity the poor reader trying to get a sense of what is happening to the world economy – and hence to prospects for their incomes, jobs, businesses and investments – by following the gyrations of the economic data reported in the media. Up one minute, down the next.
Not long ago, the bad news was flowing predominantly from China. Then, as I wrote here a few weeks ago, it subsequently seemed that the Chinese economy had stabilised. But last week another bogeyman appeared – or, more accurately, reappeared. It was reported that the US economy grew in the first quarter of this year at a rate of only 0.5pc annualised, a sharp slowdown on the figure for the final quarter of 2015, namely 1.4pc annualised. That figure was itself pretty lacklustre, but this recent number was straightforwardly grim. Are we facing a marked US slowdown, or even a recession?
The Precious Metals Train Is Leaving The Station – Especially Silver
by David Kranzler
Investment Research Dynamics
The Nikkei is down 3.7% right now, the dollar index is below 93 and the U.S. seems bound and determined to start World War Three. The U.S. is collapsing and everyone in the world knows it but the majority of the U.S. population. Hubris rules the day in the Democratic Party as Obama is going on a farewell tour around globe to tell everyone he saved the world and Hillary Clinton feels confident enough to commit any kind of crime under the sun and get away with it.
Doc and Eric Dubin – The News Doctors – invited my onto Silver Doctor’s Weekly Metals & Markets show sponsored by SD Bullion.
USD, Yen and an ‘Inflation Trade’ Update
by Gary Tanashian
Gold Seek
The Fed has been trying to promote inflation. That is not the guy with the tin foil hat speaking, it is direct from FOMC statements targeting a higher inflation level, which is another way of saying they are targeting a lower US dollar level. From this we leaned toward that which would benefit from a declining USD. Precious metals (led by silver) are a prime beneficiary, with oil and some commodities remaining firm despite pressure on stock markets as corporate performance and economic signals continue to fade.
Interestingly, the Bank of Japan played a big role in the ‘inflation trade’ last week as Kuroda signaled, temporarily at least, that it was the US’s turn to devalue in the global game of currency Whack-a-Mole in which BoJ was a star figure for so long. In one week, the US Fed rolled over and played dead (again) and the Bank of Japan surprised markets by refusing to intensify its ongoing inflationary operation.
China’s Furious Stimulus-and-Debt Binge Backfires
by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
Fabled transition to a service economy? Forget it.
The export and manufacturing powerhouse of the world, the locomotive – along with the US – of the global economy, and an indicator of the global economy itself, disappointed economists once again. The operative word in the media today is “unexpectedly.”
China has been on an glorious debt-and-stimulus binge for the past few months. New corporate borrowing shot up to record levels as the People’s Bank of China opened all valves, and juice rushed through the state-owned megabanks to corporate borrowers and others all around.
Egon von Greyerz Warns the World is Now on the Edge of Total Chaos and Disaster
from King World News
On the heels of wild start to the 2016 trading year, today the man who has become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, and major global events, just warned that the world is now on the edge of total chaos and disaster. He also discussed the historic opportunity in the gold and silver markets.
Egon von Greyerz: “We know that central banks and governments have lost the plot. When the crisis started in 2006, US short rates were 5%. In 2008 they were down to zero and have virtually stayed there ever since. A crisis package of $25 trillion was thrown at the financial system. This is what the likes of JP Morgan and Goldman told the Fed they had to do to save the bank(-ers).
Silver Market Update – Meltup Mode?
by Clive Maund
Silver Seek
Despite its alarming COTs, silver has continued even higher over the past two weeks to arrive at a near-term target in a critically overbought state. We can see this on the 1-year chart which suggests that it is likely to react back soon, or at least stop to consolidate.
[…] The good news for the longer-term is that this action has at last broken it out from its long-term downtrend, but as we can see on the 6-year chart, it is now approaching a zone of strong resistance in the $18.50 – $19.50 zone, which, should it continue higher over the near-term, should call a halt to the advance. Should the dollar break down soon from its potential top, however, then both gold and silver could go into meltup mode, in which case silver could break smash through this resistance and continue considerably higher to the next major resistance in the $26 – $27.50 zone.
Gold Keeps Shining
Nothing seems to be slowing down the gold market, even when speculators take a step back.
by Megan Durisin, Bloomberg
Mine Web
Nothing seems to be slowing down the gold market, even when speculators take a step back.
Bullion has been on a tear, with futures last week posting the biggest advance in two months. Hedge funds missed the party, reducing their wagers on a rally by the most since they turned bullish in January. The money managers were more fortunate when it came to silver, taking their holdings to the highest on record just before the metal had its best monthly advance since 2013.
The Bloomberg Precious Metals Subindex jumped 23% in 2016 amid renewed demand for stores of value. That’s the biggest gain to start a year in a decade. Slowing US growth has underscored why Federal Reserve officials have been cautious about raising interest rates again.
A Golden Jubilee: Precious Metals and Mining Stocks Skyrocket
by Jeff Berwick
Dollar Vigilante
What a week for the precious metals and mining stocks! Thursday was an outstanding day for gold and silver prices as measured against the plunging dollar. And Friday blew the doors off!
In fact, gold hit a high not seen since January 2015, closing at $1,293 on Friday.
And silver has really taken off. It reached $17.95, up from $13.90 since the start of the year for a gain of 29% in just the last four months.
[…] Our investment positioning is influenced heavily by Shemitah and Jubilee Year analysis. Last year in a video, book, white paper and numerous articles, I explained the destructive seven-year cycle of Shemitah.
Bank of Japan: The Limits of Monetary Tinkering
by Pater Tenebrarum
Acting Man
Damned If You Do…
After waking up on Thursday, we quickly glanced at the overnight market action in Asia and noticed that the Nikkei had tanked rather noticeably. Our first thought upon seeing this was “must be the yen” – and so it was:
[…] Given the BoJ’s bizarre plan to push consumer price inflation to a 2% annualized rate within [enter movable goal post here] years, Mr. Kuroda cannot be overly happy about that. In fact, lately it seemingly doesn’t matter what he decides to do or not to do – the yen is going up anyway.
Last Thursday he reportedly “disappointed” markets by not expanding the BoJ’s madcap asset purchase program even further. We are not quite sure what people believe could possibly be achieved by making the parabola shown below even more parabolic.
Weekend Reading: Yep… Still Looks Like A Trap
by Lance Roberts
Real Investment Advice
Last week, I noted technical breakout of the market above the downtrend line from last May, such a move required an increase in exposure to equity risk. To wit:
“With the breakout of the market yesterday, and given that ‘short-term buy signals’ are in place I began adding exposure back into portfolios. This is probably the most difficult ‘buy’ I can ever remember making.”
I also stated that it was probably a trap and that I will be stopped out in fairly short order. But that is the risk of managing money.
Well, since then the markets have gone, as of this writing, roughly nowhere as the market traded between roughly 2075 and 2100 all week. However, the following chart is what has me worried.
Gold Market Update – Paradoxical Situation
by Clive Maund
Gold Seek
The situation is paradoxical – gold and silver have broken out upside despite already extreme COT readings, yet the dollar has still not broken down. This setup continues to warrant caution, yet if the dollar should break down from its potential top area and drop hard, gold and silver will go into a vertical meltup – and here we should not forget the tight physical supply situation. In the last update we expected gold and silver to drop due to the COTs extremes, but they have done the opposite resulting in even greater extremes, which in silver’s case are “off the scale”.
On gold’s 1-year chart we can see that after a two-month trading range, gold has at last broken out upside from it, and appears to be starting another upleg, although the large gap between the moving averages and the COT extremes give cause for concern. Momentum (MACD) has taken a sharp upward break from a low level and looks positive.
Silver and Gold Price Forecast: Did The Big Silver And Gold Market Event Arrive?
by Hubert Moolman
Hubert Moolman’s Blog
Silver and Gold Price Forecast:
In a previous article (September 2015), I presented the following analysis (in italics) to show how we are close to a point were a significant event could happen in the bond market and/or gold & silver markets:
[…] Above, is a chart (from macrotrends.com) that shows the ratio of the gold price to the St. Louis Adjusted Monetary Base back to 1918. That is the gold price in US dollars divided by the St. Louis Adjusted Monetary Base in billions of US dollars. So, for example, currently the ratio is at 0.28 [$1 125 (current gold price)/ $4 019 (which represents 4 019 billions of US dollars)].
On the chart, I have indicated the three yellow points (a) where the Dow/Gold ratio peaked. These all came after a period of credit extension, which effectively put downward pressure on the gold price. Points 2 were placed just to show the similarities of the three patterns.
The Matterhorn Interview: Ronan Manly – April 2016
“Economics will dictate that the price of gold is going to rise”
from Gold Switzerland
For Matterhorn Asset Management, Lars Schall spoke with Ronan Manly, who is an investment professional and research analyst with an interest in the monetary gold market. He is currently working as a consultant precious metals analyst for BullionStar Singapore. Ronan’s studies include financial and economics related undergraduate and Masters degrees at University College Dublin and London Business School. His career has spanned roles in portfolio management, stockbroking, and technology, working for companies including Dimensional Fund Advisors and Morgan Stanley.
Foreshock? A Significant Earthquake Just Hit The New Madrid Fault Seismic Zone
by Michael Snyder
End of the American Dream
Could the earthquake that just struck the New Madrid fault seismic zone near the town of La Center, Kentucky be a “foreshock” for a much bigger quake yet to come? Very early on Sunday morning, a magnitude 3.5 earthquake hit western Kentucky, and it was felt in parts of three other states as well. In fact, it is being reported that the quake could be felt all the way over in Miller, Missouri, which is 267 miles away. The New Madrid fault seismic zone is six times larger than the more famous San Andreas fault zone in California, and it covers portions of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. Scientists tell us that the New Madrid fault is about 30 years overdue for a major event, and because of the nature of the Earth’s crust in that part of the country, a major earthquake would do significant damage all the way to the east coast.
Asset Performance for the First Four Months of 2016 – Hi Ho Silver
[…] Just a fine time we’re having in the great divide of wealth and power, masked and sustained by the lack of real reform and the credibility trap.
Speaking of ‘stupid media’ blithely passing along the spin from the Wall Street paper pushers, what assets outperformed stocks in the first four months of 2016?
Survey says: pet rocks.
Central Banks Are Trapped, Junior Mining Weekly Recap
by Gerardo Del Real
Outsider Club
Central Banks are trapped and the scenario I’ve been waiting years to see play out is now materializing.
The speculator and investor in me is excited because the volatility that’s approaching will provide some incredible opportunities to make a lot of money.
The human in me cringes because the volatility that we will experience globally will have real-world consequences for many, many people. Consequences that will include defaults, bankruptcies, recessions, and if history is any guide…. war.
It was a busy week on the global stage so lets get right to it.
The Unspoken Truth is that America is Supporting Al Qaeda: Heavy Propaganda Rages in the Battle for Aleppo. The Terrorists are Portrayed as “Freedom Fighters”
by Prof. Tim Anderson
Global Research
Heavy propaganda accompanies the strategic battle in Aleppo between the Syrian Army and its allies (Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and other militia) and the Saudi-Turkey-NATO backed terrorist groups (Jabhat al Nusra, Jaysh al Islam, Ahrar as Sham and ISIS).
Fighting escalated in late April when the armed groups sent hundreds of mortars into Syria’s second city, and the Syrian Army responded with its long awaited offensive.
Western media now claim that Aleppo’s citizens are under threat from the Syrian Army, while Syrian sources show civilians, reeling from constant mortar attacks, demanding that the Army roots out all terrorist groups.