from Bill Still
Silver’s New Bull Market
by Adam Hamilton
Zeal LLC
Silver officially entered a new bull market this week, decisively crossing the necessary +20% threshold. Speculators and investors alike are returning as awareness spreads of how radically undervalued silver is compared to prevailing gold prices. When silver awakens to a new bull market after a long bearish slumber, massive gains are usually unleashed. Silver’s tiny advance so far is just the tip of the iceberg.
This Tuesday, silver surged 4.4% higher on strong Asian bidding in parallel with gold. The catalyst was fascinating, China finally launching its long-awaited yuan-denominated gold benchmark. China is the world’s largest gold producer, importer, and consumer, a commanding position that should grant it much bigger say in the gold industry. The new yuan gold price will ultimately challenge London’s century-old hegemony.
Andrew Maguire – Massive Pressure for Gold Price Reset as China Checkmates the West in the Gold War
from King World News
Today whistleblower and London metals trader Andrew Maguire spoke with King World News about the massive pressure for a gold price reset, Deutsche Bank’s confession, and China checkmating the West in the gold war.
Andrew Maguire: “Eric, what people are witnessing are the first winds (early stages) of a perfect storm brewing for much higher gold and silver prices. This is because the physical market is beginning to dictate price and to constrain what the paper market actors can do…
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts – Management of Perceptions
Gold took a $20 hit after the European close today, moving down from 1250 to 1230.
And the theme of the day seemed to be ‘buy paper, don’t worry’ with the pushing of the SP 500 futures, even though techs kept threatening to roll over here on weak to bad earnings reports.
Silver managed to hang on to the $17 handle which was very good news. I am watching the NDX for stocks and silver for the precious metals to get a better idea of where these asset prices might be moving in the short term.
The charts are fairly obvious if you look at them. Nothing new has really developed. Silver seems to have activated its cup and handle with the breaking out above the rim, and so far so good there.
Gold/Silver Manipulation: The Foul Smell Of Desperation
by David Kranzler
Investment Research Dynamics
Nearly 40 million ounces of paper silver were launched at the Comex yesterday in the space of seven minutes, which triggered a 92 cent waterfall in the price of silver; over 118 million ounces of paper silver were dumped on the Comex today (April 22) between 11 a.m. and noon EST. This market intervention typically occurs after the bona fide physical precious metals in the eastern hemisphere have shut down for the day.
The baseline assumption of modern financial theory is that fiat money is sound and markets are efficient. Neither of those suppositions are valid. The markets have been completely stripped of any legitimate price discovery function. You can’t tell me with a straight face that Tesla, which is now burning cash at a rate of half a billion a year is worth $33 billion – or 8x revenues – any more than you can tell me that junior mining stock with $500 million in proved gold/silver resource in the ground is worth only $24 million.
Is the Dollar’s Major Bull Run Over?
by Marc Chandler
Financial Sense
The US dollar has had a rough few months. It has fallen against most major and emerging market currencies this year. A critical issue for global investors and policymakers is whether the dollar’s uptrend is over, or is this just a respite. Much is at stake with the answer.
The variability of exchange rates could account for a third of the total return of a basket of international equities and twice as much for a basket of foreign bonds. Since many commodities are priced in US dollars, the greenback’s direction tends to influence their dollar price. Many emerging market countries and companies have borrowed dollars, and an appreciating dollar, exposes a potentially painful currency mismatch.
The Man I’m Betting $5 Million On…
by Justin Spittler
Casey Research
Editor’s Note: In today’s Dispatch, we’re sharing a valuable (but surprising) essay from Agora founder Bill Bonner.
In it, Bill explains why he’s committing $5 million of his family trust’s money to one of his top analyst’s stock market strategy.
If you know Bill, you know why this is surprising. In short, Bill doesn’t trust the stock market. He typically invests the bulk of his net worth in gold, real estate, and private businesses.
Inflation as a Policy
by Henry Hazlitt
Mises.org
In his classic little history of fiat money inflation in the French Revolution, Andrew D. White points out that the more evident the evil consequences of inflation became, the more rabid became the demands for still more inflation to cure them. Today, as inflation increases, apologists emerge to suggest that, after all, inflation may be a very good thing—or, if an evil, at least a necessary evil. The chief spokesman of this group is Prof. Sumner H. Slichter of Harvard.
Slichter’s testimony and writings overflow with fallacies. I confine myself here to three: (1) That a “creeping” inflation of 2 percent a year would do more good than harm. (2) That it is possible for the government to plan a “creeping” inflation of 2 percent a year (or of any other fixed rate). (3) That inflation is necessary to attain “full employment” and “economic growth.”
U.S. Suicide Rate Soars in 21st Century – Up 80% For Middle Aged White Women
by Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
If you’ve lived life on this planet more than a handful of years, you’ve undoubtedly had your fair share of tough times, some of us more so than others. The fact that you’re here today reading this is a testament to your ability to overcome these struggles, and the experiences these hard times have provided you has shaped the person you are today.
For some people, a combination of life circumstances, mental and emotional difficulties, and lack of support from friends and family can lead to suicide. The thought that some people can become so overwhelmed with hopelessness and desperation they take their own lives is a haunting one.
Sadly, it is undeniable that this reality has become more and more prevalent in America as the 21st century has unfolded, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’ve seen this flare up during a decade and a half characterized by a pummeling of the middle class, a decimation of civil liberties, and the entrenchment of a callous and corrupt political and economic oligarchy.
R.I.P. Maggie the Kelpie
by Michael Covel
Daily Reckoning
Richard, one of my readers, recently sent an email…
How can you recommend an iShares Silver Trust (SLV) purchase in light of the news about European banks conspiring to fix the price of gold and silver?
Well…
I also saw this headline hit the newswires:
“Maggie the Kelpie, thought to be the world’s oldest dog, dies at age 30.”
GAO: JPMorgan Chase Customers Lost $5.4 Billion to Madoff
by Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade
Buried in a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was a stunning piece of news. Customers of JPMorgan Chase, the bank that Wall Street analyst Mike Mayo has preposterously called the “Lebron James of banking,” were major victims of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme – to the tune of $5.4 billion – because of negligence on the part of the bank. The report states the following:
“In 2014, DOJ [Department of Justice] assessed a $1.7 billion forfeiture – the largest penalty related to a BSA [Bank Secrecy Act] violation – against JPMorgan Chase Bank. DOJ cited the bank for its failure to detect and report the suspicious activities of Bernard Madoff. The bank failed to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program and report suspicious transactions in 2008, which contributed to their customers losing about $5.4 billion in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.”
This Virtually Guarantees That Your Taxes Are Going Through the Roof
by Simon Black
Sovereign Man
Ever since I was a kid, I always knew that cancer runs deep in my family.
My father died more than a decade ago of a horrible brain tumor. His father had cancer. Both of my mother’s parents died of cancer.
I knew all of this before I even understood what cancer was.
Not willing to leave the issue to genetic luck, though, my mother started educating my sister and I to make healthy decisions even when we were very young.
Market Report: Silver Roars, and Gold Stirs
by Alasdair MacLeod
Gold Money
Silver continued its stellar run this week, trading as high as $17.60 overnight in Asia on Thursday morning, and in mid-morning European trade today was 24.3% on the year, overtaking gold.
Gold finally caught a bid yesterday as well, running up as far as $1261 at the same time. Both metals opened strongly in US trading yesterday, with gold running up further still to $1270 and silver to $17.70, before someone dumped about 8,000 gold contracts and 3,750 silver contracts on Comex, driving prices down to $1250 and $17 respectively.
Preliminary Comex open interest figures for gold yesterday increased by 8,562 contracts on a net down day. This reflects the new bear sale described above, and is not symptomatic of profit-taking.
Doug Casey – Gold & Economic Collapse: How to Best Profit from Crisis
from FutureMoneyTrends
Insiders like Doug Are Making this their Top Gold Stock:
http://FutureMoneyTrends.com/GoldStock
GUEST: http://CaseyResearch.com
Mish’s Sure Fire Proposal to End Japanese Deflation: Negative Sales Taxes, 1% Monthly Tax on Gov’t Bonds
by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk
Abenomics has been a huge failure. Keynesian “solutions” of all sorts have failed to rid Japan of the alleged scourge of deflation.
Some think handing out free money is the obvious solution, but what if people don’t spend it?
I can help.
Get Ready for Huge Obamacare Premium Hikes in 2017
by Eric Pianin
The Fiscal Times
Amid rising drug and health care costs and roiling market dynamics, the spokesperson for the nation’s health insurers is predicting substantial increases next year in Obamacare premiums and related costs.
Without venturing a specific percentage increase, Marilyn Tavenner, the president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), said in an interview with Morning Consult that the culmination of market shifts and rising health care costs will force stark increases in health insurance rates in the coming year.
“I’ve been asked, what are the premiums going to look like?” she said. “I don’t know because it also varies by state, market, even within markets. But I think the overall trend is going to be higher than we saw previous years. That’s my big prediction.”
You’ll Never Guess Which World City is the Most Expensive for Renting a Home
from Telegraph.co.uk
The Global Cities Business Alliance has analysed the most expensive cities to rent in the world, as a proportion of residents’ average salaries.
In each city, the report gives the cost of a normal home – standardised by the average house size – and the average housing cost as a proportion of earnings.
Lesley Saville, chief executive, said: “The 15 cities we investigated are all struggling to keep housing development in line with population growth. There is no simple solution.”
Albert Edwards Finally Blows Up: “I’m Not Really Sure How Much More Of This I Can Take”
from Zero Hedge
Earlier this week we described the personal come to non-GAAP Jesus moment of trading commentator Richard Breslow, who confessed in no uncertain terms that he has had it with endless central banking intervention: “a portfolio built to only withstand stress thanks to central bank intervention is one destined to blow-up spectacularly. The embedded flaw in this new logic is that central banks give investors perfect foresight. And nothing can go wrong… You don’t need to be a Taleb or Mandelbrot to calculate that we have been having once in a hundred year events on a regular basis for the last thirty years.“
Inflation is the Goal… And Central Banks Will Stop at Nothing to Get It!
by Graham Summers
Gold Seek
The markets are prepping for the next massive round of QE.
As I noted earlier this week, NIRP has been entirely ineffective at generating Central Bankers’ desired “inflation.” The ECB has cut rates into NIRP four separate times only to find itself with 0% inflation. In contrast, the Bank of Japan has cut rates into zero once and immediately fallen back into a deflationary collapse.
Indeed, NIRP has even been a dud when it comes to pushing stocks higher.
The ECB’s four NIRP cuts have had a minimal impact on boosting EU stock prices:. The German DAX is roughly flat since the EU first began implementing NIRP.
Schlumberger CEO Sees ‘Full-Scale Cash Crisis’ in Oil Sector
by David Wethe
Bloomberg.com
Schlumberger Ltd. cut more jobs in the first quarter as the world’s largest provider of oilfield services sees the industry in an unprecedented downturn.
The global headcount dropped to 93,000 at the end of the first quarter with the reduction, Joao Felix, a spokesman for the company, said by e-mail. The company let go about 8,000 people in the quarter, and reclassified about 5,500 contractors as permanent workers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Paal Kibsgaard said Friday in a conference call with analysts and investors. One-third of Schlumberger’s workforce, or roughly 42,000, has now been cleaved off since the worst crude-market crash in a generation began in mid-2014.
Shakedown in MSFT and GOOGL
by Rick Ackerman
RickAckerman.com
Microsoft and GOOGL are getting hammered in after-hours trading after announcing earnings that came in slightly below analysts’ expectations.
I read it as a brazen shakedown and expect a bullish reversal once the same firms that the analysts work for have finished shaking down widows and pensioners who hold the stock.
Potentially actionable advice for GOOGL is contained in the latest update to the tout (see below).
Washington Launches Its Attack Against BRICS
by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
PaulCraigRoberts.org
Having removed the reformist President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Washington is now disposing of the reformist President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff.
Washington used a federal judge to order Argentina to sacrifice its debt restructuring program in order to pay US vulture funds the full value of defaulted Argentine bonds that the vulture funds had bought for a few pennies on the dollar. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/27/us-vulture-funds-argentina-bankruptcy These vultures were called “creditors” who had made “loans” regardless of the fact that they were not creditors and had made no loans. They were opportunists after easy money and were used by Washington to get rid of a reformist government.
Silver Prices Up 6% This Week and 25% YTD; Gold Up 1% This Week
by Mark O’Byrne
GoldCore
Silver prices rose again this week and are nearly 6% higher for the week, while gold quietly eked out a 1% gain.
Today, gold fell 0.18% to $1,247 an ounce after hitting a five-week high of $1,270.10 an ounce yesterday. Silver is up nearly 2% today to $17.36 an ounce. It had rose to a
11-month high of $17.69 yesterday and looks set to test resistance at $18 per ounce.
Palladium and platinum also saw strong gains for the week and were 6.6% and 4.25% higher respectively.
Is Wall Street Cyber Secure?
by Global Risk Insights
Financial Sense
As a symbolic and data-rich target, Wall Street faces a number of cyber threats. Regardless of the size of an attack, there remains the need for effective recovery and response mechanisms, underpinned by preventative measures.
The hub of the US financial sector, Wall Street holds great symbolic and physical importance. As such, nation states and lone hackers are reported to have launched attacks in a bid to disrupt national security or gain financial advantage through the sale of stolen confidential data.
In 2011, Iranian-sponsored hackers launched attacks against the websites of 46 Wall Street institutions, including the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Although inconclusive, US-led sanctions on Iran possibly triggered the cyber attack as retaliation. This would reflect a symbolic attack on the US financial markets.