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European Debt Crisis Cheat Sheet
Even as an ironic major snowstorm blankets most of Europe, the upcoming week will likely be one of the most heated in European history, as the untenable debtload of the periphery becomes increasingly irrelevant and more vigilantes start looking first on Belgium, then Italy, then all of the core (at which poin the EFSF will have run out), then finally America. Which is why to assist our readers with a one stop shop for all the relevant sovereign debt metrics out of Europe, we present the following exhaustive cheet sheat that covers all you need to know and then some on how the European collapse is likely to play out.
And total debt associated cash flows per country.
Via Nomura
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King Dollar is back!
The dollar is about to be poked in the eye by silver, and the blind may have a day to see.
Talk about getting poked in the eye, this is epic!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRslKeT0EmQ
"Blackcock down"
LMAO
"now, there's something ya don't see every day..." HA! unbelievable
Subtitled!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haRZxPw0JYg&feature=related
What are you talking about man ??
There is more debt distruction going on in Europe then in the US, so that means the Euro is going to soar. Especially if the ECB doesn't print any more Euro's. The Euro should be at 2.00 by the time this is over.
Prechter,Mish and Denninger have been buying all the Euros they possibly could to get in on the action.
ecb is already printing, it accepts crap collateral
The ECB is printing but you know, they are not printing enough that will offset the amount of Euro's that are being destroyed.
King Euro !
That should total about E10,000. You know of anyone else?
If king dollar is back, then that means that the stock market will fall to 3000, doesn't it? You can't have it both ways it would seem. I don't see the FED trying to help the dollar, as far as a long term plan goes. The dollar's usefulness has come to a end. And so have we.
Yep, when the DOW is at 3000, the US government is going to be swimming in tax revenue to service the debt that backs the dollar.
Its all good.
Do Italians riot wearing Prada?
they are worse than greeks...
Worse meaning the Italians are better at rioting than Greeks, or worse as in that the Italians know how to dress.
standing joke in feb '05. when displaying the dead pope at the vatican, was he wearing Prada shoes? we all thought so, and the placement of the right shoe perfectly askew.
disclaimer: hope this isn't sacrilegious.
i suppose both...but i meant rioting...am i understanding correct TD saying this might accelerate right next week?
Debt held abroad the real issue.
Adenauer and friends seek to block Ireland's 85bn Euro bailoutA German coalition comprising a controversial playwright, the grandson of the first Chancellor of the post-war federal republic and a campaigning constitutional lawyer will challenge Ireland's 85bn Euro bailout this week.
The International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and the EU are expected to agree terms on the bailout early this week. Professor Markus Kerber, a constitutional expert and Berlin-based academic, is acting for 50 clients on challenging any kind of bailout. He filed a challenge in Germany against the Greek bailout earlier this year, arguing that the move was unconstitutional. He has asked his 50 clients to approve plans to amend this to include Ireland, once a bailout package is agreed.
Mr Kerber and his supporters are looking for an injunction against Germany releasing its share of the funds to Ireland. He said: "The request for a provisional injunction to stop using funds in the Irish case will start next week or the week after, depending on when there is [a bailout] agreement."
His supporters include Patrick Adenauer, of the Association of Independent Entrepreneurs and Family-Owned Companies in Berlin, and Rolf Hochhuth, the dramatist. Mr Adenauer is the grandson of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Rolf Hochhuth is best known in the UK for his 1960s play The Deputy, which criticised Pope Pius XII's role in the Second World War, and for his support for historian David Irving, the alleged Holocaust denier.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/adenauer-and-friends-see...
Led to the Debt Neutron Bomb:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayiU-4emlKg&feature=related
Lol'
http://www.financial-edu.com/history-of-credit-derivatives.php
Link to the us maturity profile of outstanding debt?
IPO Institute of Physics. November 26. 2010:
“Considering the example of Belgium – ranked 29th according to its total GDP – we find that a crisis originating in this country (with magnitude m = 4.5), is able to affect for CON almost 60% of the world’s countries (average result of 50 realizations), while the worst-case scenario that is given by the maximum value of the fraction of infected countries (out of the same 50 realizations) is 95% of global infection.”
“Surprisingly, not all 12 countries have the largest total weights or the largest GDP. Nevertheless, our results suggest that they do play an important role in the global economic network. This is explained by the fact that these smaller countries do not support only their local economy, but they are a haven for foreign investments.”
The Worlds Most Contagious Countries – Here’s The List
http://en.wordpress.com/tag/new-journal-of-physics/
http://mikeywally.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/anatomy-of-a-traffic-jam/
thinking of Larouche, his 1980 psuedo science, never elaborated, "shockwave".....hence dismissed in toto..
IPO Institute of Physics. November 26...HERE I do have some sense 'crazies' who DO KNOW SCIENCE, really....
I will bookmark..
and, a reminder that 'chaotic' means lawful/yet unpredictable, also means via the automobile traffic jam
analogy, means...that even 'in control situations' WILL always get out of control...given certain, apparently safe/stable initial conditions..
World War 1, 'overdetermined, by rational/controlled actors yet unforeseen...unintended..
World War 111...?...Gibbs gas/liquid/solid thermodynamic model, we need to be well away from the boundary conditions
are we? and is the current Political/Economic pressure/temperature transition GOOD? saved from much worse?
Saturday night pulling tubes and reading ZH?
Only if the tubes are connected to a bong. JFC, my IQ just dropped 50 points reading that drivel and trying to make sense of it.
Did I sleep thru WWIII until WWCXI ? Musta missed those.
The foreign debt of Greece is pretty frightening.
Year Debt - external Rank Percent Change Date of Information 2003 $63,400,000,000 16 2002 est. 2004 $65,510,000,000 19 3.33 % 2003 est. 2005 $67,230,000,000 19 2.63 % 2004 est. 2006 $75,180,000,000 33 11.83 % 2005 est. 2007 $301,900,000,000 20 301.57 % 30 June 2006 est. 2008 $86,720,000,000 36 -71.28 % 31 December 2007 2009 $504,600,000,000 20 481.87 % 31 December 2008 2010 $552,800,000,000 17 9.55 % 30 June 2009In NY this week to deal with this shit once and for all. I'm pissed.
Black Friday discounts are overrated.
Hedge funds investigations and the Euro debt. Fuck, when is it going to stop?
Provocative statement. How shall you deal with it once and for all?
Made me curious also. Thought better not to ask. Plausible deniability y'all!
- popcorn anyone?
It is now time to ask the pertinent questions:
To wit:
1) Do you know where your PMs are? Close to hand?
2) Do you know where your garden is? Close to hand?3) Do you know where your (handgun, rifle, etc.) is? Close to hand?
4) Do you know where your community is?
5) Do you know where your escape route is?
If you do not know all the above, you are well and truly fucked.
Nuff said
Do you know where the squirrels hide?
With the nuts...
The Coon is all about the nuts now.
I'm a professional beaver hunter.
Generally, except in arid climates, they are found in the bush.
:)
I was a pretty avid beaver hunter but got married so that slowed.
Thanks, I was waiting for that response :-)
I'd recognize those capsules anywhere...its like gold duuuuuuust :D :D :D
Yes, I wait anxiously for the riots, as the entitlement-fed masses in every country, including the U.S., find that the checks bounce and that they're back to pork and beans, working harder, producing more, getting dirty doing it and trying to SAVE...
But they won't like it, and the fingers will be pointed unfortunately at the free market, even though too-much-socialism and too-much-regulation has been the problem.
Hell hath no fury like a collapsing state in which the bread & circuses have run out, so hide your wealth...
Spoken like some one who THINKS they are part of their club. Some news for you if your not the 1% your one of us! Do you really think what happens at the bottom has nothing to do with you? The French revolution brought down (about one head height) much of the middle class as well. Don't kid yourself your in the bottom.
@Landrew, it's all about debt, about net worth. We're doing OK...no debt, no mortgage, seven figures in cash & valuables. But I know none of us are The Elite. Still, I'm confident that, relatively speaking, we'll come out better than 95%. If your gold in dollars falls 40% but property prices collapse 60%, you're better off. If your competition is reduced through unemployment, foreclosures, debt and price inflation, you're better off. It IS a dog-eat-dog world out there and NO government is going to be able to save anyone...
While the adage "dog-eat-dog" does have application in certain contexts, its importance is far more limited than most people imagine. Let me give an example.
If you plant a garden and grow food for yourselves, perhaps you will find that you need to spend 12% more hours of labor than your neighbor.
In your view, your neighbor "ate you up", and you are screwed, destroyed, wiped-out.
In reality, that is not true. The food you grow still tastes good, is nutritious, and serves its purpose to keep you alive and healthy. True, you have less free time than your neighbor (per unit quantity of food produced), but you did NOT lose.
The problem is, too many people can ONLY think in terms of debt. So yes, if you borrow fiat money to start a store, and the other stores nearby did not borrow, and/or chose better products, and/or operate more efficiently... the cost to keep your doors open might exceed the earnings you realize on the products you sell. In that case, you might in fact get "eaten up", and that might seem like a "dog eat dog" world.
However, consider what happens if you do NOT open a business this [all too common] way. Let's say you save your money until you can pay cash for some land on a highway, and pay cash to build a store, and pay cash to fill the store with product the first time. Then you operate the store (you do not hire anyone).
Now you are in approximately the same situation as the example above... of the garden behind your house. No matter how many customers you have, you make a profit, because you have ZERO expenses. You might not make enough profit to consider your investment and your effort "worthwhile", but you are not "eaten up" by other stores. You can continue to operate, you can improve the business to hopefully make it better, you can convert your store into a different kind of business, you can close it and rent it out to other business people trying to operate with the burden of debt or equivalent(their monthly rent payments, at the very least).
Today, people seem to have some massively wacko idea that "having a business means borrowing their asses off, and getting deeply in debt". This is simply delusion. This is why 80% to 90% of businesses fail within the first 5 years. They were never viable. People want to think they can start a $500,000 business with $50,000... or $20,000... or less. That is essentially delusion, though yes, in a small percentage of cases they do succeed (for a while, maybe longer).
This represents a terrible and fundamental delusion in modern mankind, especially in business. The dynamics of operating a "debt-based business" (or debt-based personal life) are TOTALLY different from operating a "natural business" (or "natural personal life"). In the former [debt] case, you almost beg to be eaten by stronger dogs. In the later [natural] case, your profits may vary dramatically depending upon the quality of your idea and implementation, but you have a productive endeavor and "the dogs" cannot eat you, because they have no way to get to you. It is debt that lets other dogs eat you.
End the fiat, fake, fraud, fiction, fantasy economy.
End fractional reserve practices.
End business-by-debt.
End life-by-debt.
Get real.
"too much regulation"
You haven't been paying attention have you ?.
Does the phrase 'regulatory capture' imply anything to you at all ?.
You have examples of excessive regulation and the stifling effect on financial innovations you can share ?
Junk.
Several:
1. In the US is against EPA regulations to use CNG/LP in your passenger vehicle. Exceptions are made for public mass transport and vehicles that are not to be driven on the highway. CNG is more abundant, cheaper, safer, produces less emissions and comes form domestic sources. Gasoline must be refined and comes from foreign sources (60%).
Beneficiary: Oil companies.
2. In several states it is illegal to capture and store rain water for domestic use. Water capture is considered up stream capture of a natural resource.
Beneficiary: Municipal Water companies.
3. In the US, power plants are required to install extremely expensive gas scrubbers. The requirements make it cost prohibitive for older or smaller energy producers to profitably operate the power plants.
Beneficiary: Large power producers.
4. Nuclear Power plants permits can take a decade to acquire. Most of the process has nothing to do with safety and involves environmental impact studies, community benefit studies and other unrelated issues. The cost can add several millions to construction and kills any new designs.
Beneficiary: Existing nuclear power producers
5. Highway administration requirements for crash testing, safety testing, environmental testing, etc make it impossible for smaller, lighter foreign cars to enter the US markets. Many of these cars are many times cheaper to produce than US made cars but can not compete in our markets.
Beneficiary: Multinational Auto makers
6. Many states have union rules that require all employees to join the union in order to work in the state.
beneficiary: Labor Unions
7. The new food safety rules working their way thru congress would impose draconian requirements on small farming operations. Anti terror studies, genetical modification studies, soil content studies, water depletion studies, etc. These regulations would make it impossible for farmers markets to continue to operate since the cost of the studies can add hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
Beneficiaries: Monsanto and other mega food producers.
8. Insurance Regulations: In the US it is illegal to buy health insurance accross state lines. This causes all insurers to have headquarters in every state they wish to service. Thei causes massive overhead costs to insurance consumers. As a comparison, I can buy car insurance on line for very competitive rates but health insurance costs continue to increase.
Beneficiaries: Mega insurance corporations.
9.FDA regulations. The cost of bringing a new drug to the market, or repurposing any drug, make cutting edge drugs impossible to produce unless you have an operating cost in the millions. The same drugs can be easily sold at a much lower costs overseas were the regulatory environment is more permissible.
Beneficiaries: Large drug companies.
10.Minimal Wage laws and SS/Medicare taxes. The minimal wage laws have made it cost prohibitive for many employers to hire additional entry level workers. Not only entry level, but since the minimal wage artificially distorts the price discovery of labor, it artificially inflates wages to the point that many employers will opt for a technological solution or illegal migrants to do the labor. There are some jobs that are not worth 7.25 an hour. These jobs used to be done by the kid down the street that mowed your lawn or went to apprentice with a skilled laborer.
11. Child Labor laws. My first job, at 14, was working for a "cash and carry" warehouse (the predecessors to Sam's or Cosco). I was illegally working there for tips only, 5 night a week (wed-sun) and made 300-400 a week. This was in the late 70's were 400 a week was very good money. The cash and carry was privately owned and the owner took a risk by letting us kids work there after school and weekends. Eliminating these jobs not only remove a young and energetic portion of the labor pool, it keeps young people from learning the value of work.
Beneficiary: Labor Unions (believe it or not, Child Labor Laws were pushed by Unions in the garment sector)
Would you like to play some more?
I junk thee!
You deserve great credit for taking the time to create such an informative list. You kick butt! :-)
And these be the same folks wanna institute a New World Order.
They create a problem, then there is a reaction, then they offer a solution. Same playbook used for a very , very long time.
Bingo.
#1 Have one of your think tanks dream up an array of plausible crises.
#2 Take the crises to your other think tank and have them determine potential reactions to the array of crises.
#3 Take the reaction scenario to yet another think tank and have them draw up some solutions that best consolidates your power.
#4 Finance, clandestinely of course, the #1 that best maximizes #3
#5 ???
#6 Profit
All completely compartmentalized; so the bleating sheep can, against their own interests of course, argue that it would take a massive conspiracy of hundreds of people to achieve such ends.
Someone told me one time , around here, that plains should live in his own reality and not make up possible realities to discuss. I say why not. The government plays the game of "what if" Why can't we? They play us like a fiddle and all of the people in this country worry about is their own little worlds and realities. I got news for them. Its over. Deal with it. Now granted. I have been wrong on my timing. Who knew. Nobody knows what is going to happen and when, at least none of us do. We can only guess. One thing I have learned is to stay away from time tables. Time tables will get you in trouble again and again, especially when you are trying to wake the people up because when something doesen't happen like you said it would, then they start carping and mocking. That's ok. I can deal with it. Goes with the territory. One thing I do know. The people we are up against have no soul. They could care one good damn less about us. To them, we are cattle. Sometimes the herd must be culled. That my friends is reality.
Drifter, you got it right on timetables. I use this analogy with people. Predicting economics is like predicting the weather. Predicting economic disasters in particular is like predicting hurricanes. We understand very well how hurricanes form and where they generally start. We also know how they end. Yet, we can never predict how many, how strong and what their path will be and even when and where they will die. If we live in Florida or the Caribbean we do well to prepare and we warn our neighbors to be ready. If one forms we may warn them there is one out in the central Atlantic but they walk out the door and see only blue skies. We tell them still to take at least some basic measures like a flashlight a little food and water, because they do know about hurricanes/the Great Depression, Housing Bubble, etc. However, some still will not.
So, like you I watch the weather/economic indicators but I know there are so many variables over time that it hard to predict exactly when, where and how bad. Yet, we know they occur and create unbelievable disaster particularly for the unprepared. Then we will need to share our flashlights and water.
Yup, they are the predators-that-be, with an accent on predators. Not only do they have "no soul", they are intentionally and purposefully evil.
They are predators in the functional sense, just like a wild animal that grabs its prey, shreds it to pieces, and eats it. However, they are 100% aware of what they are (predators), and the nature of their game (theft, enslavement and destruction of producers).
The predators know full well that on the most fundamental level, the story of mankind is predator versus producer.
The predators know perfectly well that producers do not need or benefit-from predators. In fact, without predators, producers are vastly more efficient, and live the "good life" rather easily.
The predators also know that predators fundamentally need producers, because the producer create the goods the predators need to survive and enjoy life.
Unfortunately, producers do not identify this fundamental story of mankind, or fundamental relationship of savage predatory mankind and productive mankind.
One hugely important "secret" the predators are keenly aware of is the fact that destruction is inherently and metaphysically more potent and powerful than production. For example, consider how much time, effort, planning, experience, intelligence and resources are required to design and build a nice new home. Now consider how much time, effort, planning, experience, intelligence and resources are require to destroy that home. Answer: less than one dollar for gasoline, plus a free book of matches.
The predators take advantage of the inherent "imbalance" of destruction and production in reality. The mere threat of destruction is sufficient to convince most producers to "pay up" to avoid having their property stolen and their lives ruined. When threats aren't sufficient, they are happy to destroy. That is the modus-operandi of modern [predatory] government and corporatocracy, to operate exactly on the mafia model.
Only if and when humans clearly understand the true nature of predators versus producers will they stand up and take the risks and actions required to eliminate them. I'm afraid humans are vastly too confused by the endless propaganda spewed by agents of the predators-that-be to take those risks. Let's hope I'm wrong.
Ditto,
Classic Hegalian Dialectics.
The playbook answer always boils down to "more government regulation" even if government created the problem. Fannie, Freddie and the Fed lay down the fertile soil for a housing bubble. Bubble bursts, everyone in the financial community is blamed (with some validity). Government takes no responsibility (seen any Congressional hearings?) issues another 2-3000 pages of financial regulations to "fix" the problem. They have no way of knowing what the hell the effects of those regulations will be.
For all you pro-regulators let me ask you a sincere question. How many regulations till human behavior is perfected and the world is perfect? If you can't answer that then consider the oppposite. How much regulation and police state till we are all miserable and oppressed?
I offer these follow up rhetorical questions just to give you pause. Did governments invent banking and the terms of trade? Did government invent the modern medical practice and its certification and scientific requirements? Did government invent medicine and the processes by which they are discovered? Did government invent the oil and gas industry, drilling, refining transport and infrastructure? Why couldn't government close the oil well at the bottom of the ocean? They are the regulators and experts, right? Have the gov't write a law that it be closed. Government didn't invent one damn thing have one damn original idea or forsee or prevent any disasters. They come in after the fact, talk to people who actually know something in that industry and later write rules pass out fines and make money off of disasters or regulatory infractions.
It is because of the unlimited power to write unlimited regulations that you get the corporate-state marriage that you see. I think perhaps the greatest fiction on earth is that we need government to "rule" us. They will rule us to bankruptcy and death and you see today.
yup. +100
The playbook answer always boils down to "more government regulation" even if government created the problem. Fannie, Freddie and the Fed lay down the fertile soil for a housing bubble. Bubble bursts, everyone in the financial community is blamed (with some validity). Government takes no responsibility (seen any Congressional hearings?) issues another 2-3000 pages of financial regulations to "fix" the problem. They have no way of knowing what the hell the effects of those regulations will be.
For all you pro-regulators let me ask you a sincere question. How many regulations till human behavior is perfected and the world is perfect? If you can't answer that then consider the oppposite. How much regulation and police state till we are all miserable and oppressed?
I offer these follow up rhetorical questions just to give you pause. Did governments invent banking and the terms of trade? Did government invent the modern medical practice and its certification and scientific requirements? Did government invent medicine and the processes by which they are discovered? Did government invent the oil and gas industry, drilling, refining transport and infrastructure? Why couldn't government close the oil well at the bottom of the ocean? They are the regulators and experts, right? Have the gov't write a law that it be closed. Government didn't invent one damn thing have one damn original idea or forsee or prevent any disasters. They come in after the fact, talk to people who actually know something in that industry and later write rules pass out fines and make money off of disasters or regulatory infractions.
It is because of the unlimited power to write unlimited regulations that you get the corporate-state marriage that you see. I think perhaps the greatest fiction on earth is that we need government to "rule" us. They will rule us to bankruptcy and death and you see today.
Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked: 'Account overdrawn'."
Francisco d'Anconia
Thanks. I had forgotten that passage.
Thanks Husk, saved.
Germany's debt/GDP stands at #19 in the world, right below Portugal's but greater than Ireland and the UK Link .
They also just announced a record budget deficit. That's making them nervous and quick to call the pot black. WSJ
check your source Caviar Emptor, because your numbers are Bullshit !
these www.cia.com numbers are evidently wrong !
And at 40 place the United States with a Debt to GDP Ratio of 53.50% ? bullshit !
Try 94% US Debt to GDP Ratio or 13.7 trillion US national Debt
and 414 billion yearly Interest on DEBT and counting -
No matter how you try to put the numbers,
the US is fucked, both literally and caveat emptor style.
but here is a more realistic US source:
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Now how could a simpleton like myself profit from this?
Suggestions...
a)Time the collapse of the dollar & T-bonds correctly;
b)Time the coming temporary dollar rise (and then fall) correctly;
c)Buy gold & silver and know when to trade it for real estate.
Got the gold and silver part over the last couple of years. I guess that's the easy part. Thanks.
My advice is much simpler and yet more complex.
A) Buy and HOLD gold and silver. This is a passive way to short the dollar and the Euro (and all other rapidly self-destructing fiat currencies). It is a passive way to short the bond markets of bankrupt western countries (no timing or trading savvy needed). It is a passive and peaceful way to opt out of the tyranny of banker-controlled paper monies and to defund a corrupt and broken politcal system. It is a passive way to gain financial independence and become in effect your own central bank.
B) When the smoke has cleared, use the massive profits you will gain from owning gold and silver (only physical in your hand, not paper ponzis like GLD) to buy whatever it is that the world wants and needs. Due to the industrial revolution and rising living standards/consumption in the emerging markets, this will likely be commodities and commodity production (agriculture, water, base commodities). Do not buy residential realestate in bankrupt countries where the market is rife with government intervention. Do not buy residential realestate unless you can make positive cash flow and want to take on the responsibilities and headache or being a land-lord. Do not buy residential realestate unless you are trained and savvy at investing and profiting from realestate and want the responsibilities and tax liabilities that come with that. (hint, don't buy residential realestate). The US economy is grossly imbalanced, geared towards consumption and service industry. The companies which will manufacture and produce the things that the rest of the world wants and needs and return america to prosperity DO NOT EXIST AT THIS TIME. They have all been hollowed out and exported overseas. Hence, there may be fantastic growth opportunities in America at some point in the future, but the stocks which you will want to own at some point are in companies that for the most part, do not even exist at this point in the time. So stay away from US mutual funds or other investment vehicles which are pegged to the US economy in the current status quo. Finally, for direction on where to place your profits from the metals, just listen to the greatest minds that there are, who have been right for decades, and will be right in the decades to come. Kingworldnews.com!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Personally, I don't plan on managing my money myself for perpetuity. Why would I when there are people like Bill Laggner who made his clients 134% gains in 2008 by shorting the US housing market when everyone elses 401ks got cut in half? Or when there are people like John Hathaway from the toqueville fund who are making 34% compounded gains over the last 5 years? Or Eric Sprott, or bill fleckenstein, or Rick Rule? It's not rocket science, get your money out of the banks, out of the hands of wallstreet, out of government investment vehicles, out of the US economy, and put it in the hands of intelligent people with integrity who have a track record of being right and who truly understand the global economy. Know yourself. Are you a savvy investor with a excellent macro-economic picture and comprehensive knowledge of how to vet the quarterly reports and the fundamentals of individual companies and decide whether their stocks are overvalued or a good buy? Are you a day trader? If you are not, I suggest giving your money to experts like the ones I mentioned above WHO HAVE A TRACK RECORD OF BEING RIGHT. Sounds like you already hold metals. You are lightyears ahead of the masses and will no doubt do well. One final piece of advice. Don't "take profits" on your metals by using them to buy a broken currency. The US$, the Euro, the Yen, the GBP are all candidates for hyperinflation. Do not move from the safety of metals into paper monies unless you have a cohesive plan to immediately transition into ownership of performing investments. Stay away from realestate in general, and in the US specifically unless you are buying agricultural realestate and at a good price. Frankly, this is probably not a wise move for the average person.
What a great infomercial!
I just love globalism. How about you?
I like a Gershwin tune, "How about you?" Written by george and Ira. Milestones (written & played by Miles Davis)
To amend and correct this -
One of the greatest early romantic recordings by Frank Sinatra, 'How About You?'
The words and music are by Ralph Freed & Burton Lane, from the 1941 film 'Babes on Broadway', and then a popular recording by Tommy Dorsey:
Lyrics:
I like New York in June, how about you?
I like a Gershwin tune, how about you?
I love a fireside when a storm is due
I like potato chips, moonlight, motor trips, how about you?
...
Holding hands in the movie show
When all the lights are low
may not be new
But I like it, how about you?
In the song there is a reference modern listeners will find odd, to the 'good looks' of Franklin Roosevelt ... but one must remember the affection in which many Americans held FDR at that time. After all, he did end prohibition.
Just beautiful here, Frank Sinatra on You Tube, 'How About You?' - This is romance in 1940s America, captured perfectly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_QJB7N92AE
Hey Tyler. Great synopsis. Try using PRE-EU debt to GDP figures instead w an adjusted growth rate. As we know, to get into the eu, Greece and others had to cut debt/GDP to ridiculous levels. All kinds of lies and derivative-enabled tricks let countires basically take sov debt "off bal sheet". Using their bogus figures now is just totally inaccurate and will hurt these countries so much more the longer they wait!
Same here.
Some of the figures published are interesting, but as an European (French, precisely) acccustomed to government lies in all domains, I wouldn't give much confidence to the total deficit and debt figures.
Most liabilities are counted as assets, and the rest is hidden via complex accounting tricks.
1,489 billion of public debt in France? My ass. If you count the debt of public hospitals (Hôpitaux de Paris, for example), public and semi-public companies (RATP, SNCF, EDF/GDF, Caisse des dépôts...), public and semi-public pensions, public and semi-public mutuelles de santé... you shoot up the 10 trillion level easily. The economy in France is such an incredible mixture of private and public debt that you cannot differentiate the two. Everything is linked in an ugly way.
Sounds like the US and France are using the same accountants. Most of our (US debt) is owed to the social security "trust fund". We only count part (13T) of the debt but ignore 50 Trillion in unfunded liabilities. We are also keeping Fannie / Freddie debt (3-5 Trillion) off the books even though the US is responsible for the debt. If the US government was to keep honest books they would have to show 75-85 Trillion in debt 5x GDP.
Actually....it's somewhat north of $106 T, and counting.
You say po-tay-toe, I say po-tah-toe,
You say tom-may-toe, I say to-mah-toe,
You say 106 Trillion - I say 106 Quintilllion
po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe,
tom-may-toe, to-mah-toe,
Trillion, Quintillion,
Lets call the whole thing off!
(pun intended)
- sometimes you're pretty sexy.
You must really dig that song!
French Accountants!?!?!?!!
"Most liabilities are counted as assets, and the rest is hidden via complex accounting tricks."
Right 'debt = money assets = matched one/one against 'real assets/real estate' Theoretically Perfect, always 'enough money', unlike Gold/hard coinage 'shortages' that artificially impeded Trade... Theoretically the 'real asset' is a social good, a value, with an expected Lifetime/obsolescence, hence a 'hurdle rate of interest' to be met....Engineering Economic Discounted Present Value....
but human 'sin' 'antisocial' 'selfish' 'greedy behaviour' works AGAINST this "Fiat"...Credit/Trust cannot exist, anymore...
How did this money/asset match work in World War11 ? German Real Estate/factories 90% destroyed in multiple 1000 airplane raids...France, also, much damage done by the Americans in the first months after June 1944 D Day ...how was THAT handled financially...
World War1? massive physical asset destruction...how were these things handled, why is there all this German emphasis on nov 1923 German inflation...most of THAT was undone, sales cancelled...
BUT NOTHING ABOUT THE REAL ECONOMIC ISSUE OF GERMAN/JAPANESE WAR DAMAGE, reconstruction....Why was the pathetically SMALL Marshall plan 1948 for Germany such a big deal?
Why is this essential Economics NOT presented in University?
Some secrets here?
@"But they won't like it, and the fingers will be pointed unfortunately at the free market, even though too-much-socialism and too-much-regulation has been the problem."
i couldn't disagree more. the total lack of regulation in lending, debt / money,
creation is the core financial problem, from loan origination through securitization.
etc. the process could not have been less regulated. and even the little regulation
that existed was ignored. and then the bailouts just destroy any semblance
of economy. that wasn't socialism, it was free market banksterism. fascism.
incest, two headed love child stuff. in the physical world, without regulation ,
growth is cancerous. the regulation must serve the system as a whole, not just
a one part of the system. so i think we have lost our sense of judicious and
intelligent priorities.
no riots. the people are individually more intelligent than one might think
from their outward appearances, or than they are commonly portrayed
by the media. there be genius lurking under the radar. and tremendous
tolerance, perhaps too much, but this tolerance is not infinite, the genius
and ingenuity is however dormant.
imo
+++
we have regulations, what we don't have is enforcement
Au Contraire ,we have enforcement on the sheeples.
The murderers of the economy/country, are scot free, to do as they wish.
Government regulation is the tool of the powerful to control the powerless. Who do you think writes regulation? Who do you think benefits from it? Who is free to ignore it while using it as a bludgeon against their competition. The most unregulated place in the world right now is the internet. Compare it to newspapers and other media and then tell me we need to regulate it. TPTB love regulation. It is one of their tools.
Correct. Thank you. Here's more.
@blindman, please read:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard99.html
i read it. thought this was useful...
"
McQuaid’s blindness to the role of direct economic interest in these matters is demonstrated by his discussion of the crucial role of business leaders in drafting and pushing through the Marshall Plan in 1948. There is no mention of the fact that most of the Marshall Plan’s strongest business supporters were export manufacturers or their bankers, who would of course become the principal beneficiaries of foreign aid. Moreover, in his discussion of the role of the powerful William L. Clayton, undersecretary of state and principal architect of the Marshall Plan, McQuaid confines himself to Clayton’s anticommunism, his conservatism, and to the fact that he was personally liked by John Kenneth Galbraith. Totally omitted is the surely pertinent fact that, after Clayton succeeded in pushing the Marshall Plan through a Republican Congress, his own firm of Anderson, Clayton & Co., one of the world’s largest cotton brokers, received a huge contract from Marshall Plan funds. Whether out of ignorance or excessive decorum, McQuaid has systematically omitted crucial strands of the business-government partnership he tries to explain."...
.
comment: crony corporatism masked as compassion. shadow self/culture/banks/government/etc.
there is always that underlying story of insider exploitation of value. dualism or shadow or dialectic.
the mobius strip of the mind. funny. anyway, my point is just/was just, fiat currency unregulated is
just fucking insane. seems like a pretty obvious thing. to object to regulating fiat currency on a
ideological libertarian anti regulation platform is naive.
@"Government regulation is the tool of the powerful to control the powerless."
people write regulations , ideally, as a recognition of the limits the collective
need respect for the "good" of the "people" or system adhered to that exists
to provide for the continued existence of their collective investments.
i agree there is a corruption enters into the crony process and enlightened
self regulation is often superior. expression of liberty . and the individual
is the real unit underlying the fiction of collectives and must be respected
as such, a reality or truth. but the money system, fiat, must be regulated
or the system suffers systemic collapse of insolvency. as we see today.
the system is revealed to be a preferential ponzi fantasy because there
was no judicious regulation of its propagation. the imbalances work
fantastically for the crony segment of the system at the expense of
everyone and everything else. the inter-net is a network of communication
and is also regulated by factors such as access, physical limitations, time
considerations etc. but it is not the basis for all legal transactions. it is
not money. gold, is regulated. right. yes it is but by whom? or by what?
the planet has a limit. a regulation without which gold would
instantly cease to be "precious". we need to know our LIMITS. and
then use them wisely. and we need to communicate to others that they
too have limits and we demand that they recognize and respect those
limits or regulations. man made or otherwise recognized. we should
all embrace our personal regulations
and use them as our tools, as you say, we are the powers that be.
NO, NO, NO!! Fiat money exists because it is REGULATED into existence by legal tender laws. You don't really think that people would accept ink stained linen in exchange for their efforts/goods unless forced to do so, do you?
In a deregulated free market individuals would be free to choose the method of exchange and its value. Look at early colonies were tobacco (a valuable export commodity) was used as currency in lieu of gold and silver. Or even earlier when spices and gold were traded for silk. Fiat is the ultimate form of financial regulation benefiting the banksters and injuring everyone else.
Individuals craft their own regulations in the absence of government regulations. Look at the western expansion in the US and the communities that formed in the new territories. Rules of behavior were based on religion, courtesy, and survival. In Texas you would be hung for stealing a horse. Why? A horse was critical for survival. Insulting a man's wife or attacking his family would earn you a bullet. Swindling a community would at the least get you run out of town, more likely tarred and feathered.
Individuals self regulate or die. Governments regulate for the benefit of their political masters.
Sheesh!
- excellent banter betwixt ya'll.
"Swindling a community would at the least get you run out of town, more likely tarred and feathered."
Taking care of business in Deadwood, serial killer gets ass stomped.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X15It4sYLRI&feature=related
@" Governments regulate for the benefit of their political masters."
that is where the people must be vigilant or be eaten. the people
as described in the constitution of the usa are the political masters.
and nature abhors a vacuum and the powers that be know that, exactly
how to fill a vacuum.
b. franklin. : "..you have a republic, if you can keep it." ?
if not, individuals with power will do what they will with the resources
extant on this continent. aka extraction, endless, until it is laid to waste.
fine. the job is almost complete anyway.
the american revolution arose as a rebelion to an ORGANIZED authority
or entity that demanded payment in ......precious metals. the colonists
didn't organize because they wanted to. they were forced to, to survive
oppresive authority. they had to fill the vacuum.
the modern world can be described in one sentence. it is a time when
the desire to be left alone will not be a realistic option. you will be/
are reguired to make your demands known. i suggest you do so with
regards your "government". and inform them that you are very serious.
obviously you need to be armed with the truth as it is, as you know it.
you are a political master, "if you can keep it." ?
Very good. Amazing how terminally confused so many humans get, huh?
The key point of gold, silver, spices or any other real, physical good as a medium of exchange is this. The "value chain" is never broken. Every party in every transaction receives real, physical, valuable goods from the other party. Nobody is ever left holding a stupid freaking piece of tainted toilet paper (currency), or some supposed "receipt for goods" that has historically always been found oversubscribed, which rewards the predator class.
So, though gold is the best medium of exchange, the "gold standard" does not mandate that anyone exchange their goods for gold. It simply prices the "value" of everything relative to gold. So, if you wish to trade your "eggs" for "lumber", you look up the exchange rate of "eggs to gold" and "lumber to gold" and you know how much lumber you can buy with your eggs.
It is stunning to see how few people can even comprehend the basics of honesty and reality today. As you say, Sheesh!
This is the premise of voluntary exchange and no one can really get cheated. What is also excellent about your scenario is you can look up gold, eggs and lumber and still not make a deal or make a different deal. It is called bargaining. It is the origin of the term "It's a bargain." This levels things everywhere and keeps men free and the owners of their own labor. It is beautiful in its simplicity and power.
I know. That so many people can argue against something so obvious, so honest, so ethical and so damn simple... just boggles the mind. Most humans today truly are braindamaged.
are you ready to turn your back on the house because it has been
over run by rodents? government is regulation. are you ready to
abandon it because others have abused it and used it as their own
tool , perverted it, for personal fame and fortune?
we need to to know which direction to go. i say forward, marching
facing the problem and not separately running in confusion in the wrong direction.
end the fed.
http://endthefedusa.ning.com/
.
here is what the powers that be know that makes them the powers
that be and the rest debt slaves. nature abhors a vacuum. there will
always be government. natural fact. people as collectives, which they always
are, will self organize and that will be symbolically codified and can rightly
be called "government". while the population of collective people are
wondering what to do, how to comply, where to turn for their security,
how to position themselves socially, etc. the powers that be are running
the government with fiat currency that they have received from the government
to buy the government for their own personal gain. so while we would
call for less regulation, less government involvement, and running away
from the insanity of the process they are embracing it. they tell you to
run and you run. where? where you going to run to? the powers have
made sure there is no place where you can run that they have not already
colonized. nature abhors a vacuum and the powers that be fill that
vacuum and then tell you you are not welcome here. i say that is wrong.
go to the government and become the government and set it straight.
investors who think that someone else should have the integrity to
properly administer government functions properly proportioned while
they can concentrate on their personal finances are deluded. they need
to be screaming at their representatives or becoming their own representatives.
when the good people give up due to frustration and desperate insights of
doom the vacuum is filled by self serving dingbats! and the powers that be
know exactly how to play this option also. imo, at the moment.
Exactly. Animals self regulate.
http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a468/goldsaver/IMAG0115.jpg
Sigh. Yes, I am absolutely, positively 100% ready to "turn my back on government". You must be kidding!
Let's start with the basics: government does not exist. That's simply a fact. The so-called "government", or any organization including "corporation", "society", "club", and so forth --- is simply a fiction. If your brain cannot see past "what officials say", some day go to the library and take a look at the most fundamental laws. There you will find that fundamental law calls all organizations "fictitious entities". So yes, even at the most core, "official" level, governments, corporations and other organizations do not exist.
So yeah, we can do quite well without government, since we always have (it doesn't exist). What the term "government" does is... provides a conceptual fog to protect the predators who pretend to be in charge of that fiction. Those predators are real, and the damage they do is real, but the organization is a fiction.
Fact is, governments are obsolete. Yes, it is difficult to stop thinking in terms that you are brainwashed to think since you were born, whether that is some wacko deity of your forest tribe, or "government". But they are both pure frauds that do nothing but empower predators at the expense of producers.
If mankind doesn't totally self-destruct (which it most probably will), the illusion of so-called "governments" will mostly vanish. Why? For many reasons, but let's skip those that are arguable. Let's skip ahead 100 years, to a time when people can leave earth and establish homesteads in outer space --- on the moon, on or behind asteroids, in spacecraft and space habitats, etc. We should be there already, but the predators have massively slowed this progress down since the moon landings.
Space is big. I mean really, really big. When you watch space fiction in movies or television, you get impressions that space is tiny, like a solar system or galaxy is a small "neighborhood". That's totally wrong. Once established in space, individuals and tiny groups of individuals will be utterly independent. Any and all attempts to control and tax them will totally fail, because the energy to attempt to "go collect the tax" or "enforce regulations" would cost about a million times what the predators DBA "government" could collect. Not to mention how freaking easy it is to hide in outer space (you have no idea).
Fact is, government does not exist, the predators who do business as "government" are pure evil, and we would all be vastly better off without that mass delusion.
Great comments. The greatest fiction foisted upon mankind is that we need government at all...at least government as we understand it today. Let's get on with space exploration.
plus 100 regulatory capture crony bux, goldsaver. Joe Steel ftw. Central Services anyone?
Please discuss how the Central Banking and fractional reserve philosophies are not regulation of the highest order.
Please discuss how the original intent of the Coinage Act of 1792 and the so-called Constitution's limitations of government role and ownership of "money" was not anti-regulation and freedom at a high level.
You are for more laws and more government enforcement.
I am for zero government and for individual enforcement of self.
It is a cycle. Sometimes you will be happy and sometimes I will be.
I am for zero government and for individual enforcement of self.
This is Anarchy, but a controlled type.
Very similar to Common Law/Natural Law.
I agree, but unfortunately the sheeple are stupid, and cannot control themselves, not govern themselves.
...and those that are unable to self regulate will die off. Simple. The law of the jungle is self regulation. The penalty is death. Why is this so hard to understand.
That's the beauty of it, self governance and the "gift economy"
"The anthropologist Marshall Sahlins writes that Stone Age gift economies were, as evidenced by their nature as gift economies, economies of abundance, not scarcity, despite modern readers' typical assumption of objective poverty...
...practiced the potlatch ritual, where leaders give away large amounts of goods to their followers, strengthening group relations. By sacrificing accumulated wealth, a leader gained a position of honor."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy
Consider how few tools people had in the 1500s, 1600s, 1700s. And they had zero electricity and therefore zero motors and all the technology that flows from that. And they had no computers or automation. And only crude metalurgy. And no oil wells or combustion engines.
And yet, so many shipped their butts across the ocean and into a mostly empty wilderness (the americas) with zero government and zero way to bail out.
If they could "make life work" in those circumstances, humans today with all the tools and technologies they have at their disposal --- have no excuse!
Of course, they were advantaged in that they did not have a government screwing them over every 15 minutes. And that was a huge positive.
PS: If you think those folks in the 1500s ~ 1700s were crazy, just imagine what the "natives" who wandered across 5,000 miles of polar ice-sheets to populate the americas 50,000 years ago faced! Yikes!!!
...but unfortunately the sheeple are stupid, and cannot control themselves, not govern themselves.
That's why the movie-image of the old west is the best solution to that problem. If everyone walked around with a six-shooter (or today with 32-shot clips) on their belts, people definitely would govern themselves quite effectively.
Fact is, in a world with only the 3 fundamental laws that everyone understands the legitimacy of, people would govern themselves.
#1: Do not harm or destroy (kill) other productive human beings (or "sentient entities" if aliens land).
#2: Do not harm or destroy property created or owned by other human beings (or "sentient entities").
#3: Do not violate contracts you made freely and voluntarily (without misrepresentation or fraud by either party).
Warren Buffet, Swiss Re, Larry Silverstein, G Bush, H Paulson, L Blankfein, MATT TAIBBI please figure it out!
Econo-Technics 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayiU-4emlKg&feature=related
70 years old, no internet or HTF or POMO or ZH god save us from ourselves.
no doubt they cut back on all the snow removal workers first - the grass cutters are probably still on contract for another month
Germany clearly plans to export their way out of that debt. Consequently, they will permit nothing to upset their apple cart.
The Germans are also advocating that foreign bond-holders take some of the hit.....spead the pain so they don't have to take it all.
Freedom Main take on the EU crisis and economic class structure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Odf2paRilM
So Ko. This isn't looking so good. HTTP://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2010/11/28/0200000000AEN20101128001...
No Ko must want that island!
TIME'S MAN OF THE YEAR 2.0???
Ben Shalom is the man! Geither+Bernanke+Paulson+Obama= Saviors of America
Literally modern day superheros.
WE could have collapsed and had a second Great Depression. Instead they acted like Saints and SAVED OUR BEHINDS!
I am just thankful my young children can grow up in peace instead of having to live through hell and possibly another world war along with a draft!
T, you forgot the /sarcasm tag
Fun to throw a big, fat, stinky junk when it's well deserved though...
Bit too obvious, sorry.
Well, the plan of every single country in the world is to export their way to prosperity. They all knew that everyone else is doing the same, and their targetted consumer has been, in their minds, naturally, China. They plan (because it is painless) to solve it all thru growth, where growth derives from exports.
So there has to be currency war. The dollar must not be permitted to fall. The perverse evolution is that it won't be the US govt supporting its own currency. It will be all the competitors preventing it from being trashed, in order to trash their own.
Sorry gold guys, it's not going to work out your way. The dollar will not be allowed to weaken.
In the end, they all can print all they want. They can't print oil, and that will be that.
I told all my clients to DUMP GOLD.
I was a Gold bull starting in 2002.
You will not make any money shorting the dollar. It will never die.
No Hyper-Inflation. No Deflation. No Great Depression 2.0
Nothing else is coming, folks. NOTHING!
Obama's poll numbers will begin to reverse by spring next year and he will be re-elected in 2012.
I don't like Obama other than reappointing Bernanke. I don't like Bush either. Wanna fight about it?
Excellent. Then you won't have any clients next year, and you'll reap what your foolishness has sown.
Pay attention to what is going on around you. The financial world is collapsing all around you. All that is left is a facade, and even that is starting to crumble.
But yeah, you dump gold, and you can wind up in the wastebin of history like all the other idiotic gold trolls who can come (loudly), and have disappeared when gold blew right past their predicted tops, and never looked back save for consolidation.
He is a troll.
I'm afraid you have to define Nothing in order to be controversial.
Is it Nothing as in no change in unemployment? Nothing as in no change of oil price as depletion does its thing? Nothing as in no growth next year?
State and local governments are 13% of GDP and they are not going to grow next year. They are going to shrink. The tea party folks will not let federal government add anything either. The Obama tax increase 1 Jan is the elimination of the Bush tax cuts, and that will take another 1-2% off GDP. Treasury rates can't go up in an environment of crushed GDP, so the Fed can buy bonds more or less as long as it wants. Guess what, sports fans? Two new Fed Board members take their seats in January. They are both anti QE. Ben may have shot his last ammo.
It's not going to get better. Ever. If that's NOTHING, then are you smug?
If debt is such a problem, why are yields so darn low? Where is the doom?
Soon the FED won't have to worry about unemployment at all, once the mandate is changed.
Rates are going up! Gold is about to CRASH hard.
King dollar isn't going to die. I wanted Ron Paul to win in 2012, but he is going to be wrong which won't help him like in 2008.
He went on record saying this was "the end of the dollar" in his latest book. Breton Woods 2.0 is not coming, folks.
Great, Hallelujah, from your lips to God's ears, I can buy more for the same amount of FRN's.
Ben & Co. implementing tight monetary policy? Which rates? Nominal or real?
For which instruments? Treasuries? At which maturity? 10-17Y and 2.5-4Y?
"If debt is such a problem, why are yields so darn low?"
Yer a moron, the Fed is buying it. Go away troll....
Is that called risk off?
Good, more for me, physical only please, no paper promises.
Johnny?
Yes, and housing will always go up, and P/E ratio's of 200 in tech is OK and US debt to GDP of 100 or 200% won't matter and so on. Yep, all those kind of predictions work out well. They work out if there are no consequences.
I personally want to thank you as that kind of advice will keep PM's more affordable for awhile longer. I have a lot of friends who need to take a position in them, still.
Using the USDX to measure the strength of the dollar is like using a fast melting stick of butter as a ruler. The USDX keeps printing between 70 and 80, yet here we are with gold at or near record highs every time.
Gold serves no function in society. Oil does. Copper does. Cotton does. Corn does. Why measure in gold? No, don't bother to answer. Just rethink your thinking. It's wrong.
Keep buyin those treasuries....
The time for treasuries to be exited will be when QE is voted down by the new Fed Board members. The place for that money to go will be Brazil. PetroBras is largely a scam, but Brazil is the most explosively growing agro power there is. And they have the oil (and refineries) to fuel the tractors and transport food to Sao Paulo.
You are fucking crazy
You are playing with fire man.
Get the hell out of those fucking treasuries.
While i think you completely miss the point about Gold being insurance against paper money, I think you are right about Brazil being a good place to invest... But it has been for about 5 years now, and there is already no point holding USA Treasuries.
Gold serves three functions: decoration, demonstration of status or power, and money for large transactions. And even I can't eat it.
But you can eat those Treasuries, no?
Paper sandwiches. Yum!
If gold is so bad, then why do the Rothschilds want all of it? They love it. Why can't I? Is that you , Douchinger?
yep, how did you guess it was me?
You are No. 1, hun!
Most buyers of physical gold are sovereign states, super rich, institutions and lately the upper and middle class.
When the rest of the people jump in, it will indeed end up in a bubble. But we are far from that point.
What makes you and others who snub gold think that you are smarter than these gold buyers? Are you broke? Are you a stock gambler? Are you bitter and cynical?
If you must hate someone, then at least hate everyone equally.
Gold buyers, stock buyers, bond buyers, T Bill buyers........
I'll make you a deal. With your next 80 dollars you buy a barrel of oil and I'll buy 2 grams of gold (funny how gold is worthless but I can't buy a full barrel for 80 dollars). In a year I'll trade the gold for FRNs and you sell your barrel of oil. Lets see who holds more FRN's.
Never mind, I don't trade my gold for FRN's.
"Gold serves no function in society."
I nominate this quote for Dumbest Comment of the Year/Decade/Century award. LMAO. Nice try douche.
I believe he meant to say, "gold serves no function in society except as a store of value", so take this as the corrected statement.
Hmmm......no function. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Please explain why it has been DEFINED AS MONEY for 6000+ years?
Hmmmmm.
Because you can't counterfeit it, and it's rare, and, in historical times, it was easy to mine because it's always pure and requires no ore processing.
You could well conclude that it has been used as money because there was no other practical purpose for it.
GOD,must have been wrong,along with Silver.
Send him an email.
"A sentiment of trust in the legal money of the State is so deeply
implanted in the citizens of all countries that they cannot but believe
that some day this money must recover a part at least of its former value.
To their minds it appears that value is inherent in money as such, and
they do not apprehend that the real wealth, which this money might have
stood for, has been dissipated once and for all.
This sentiment is supported by the various legal regulations with which
the Governments endeavor to control internal prices, and so to preserve
some purchasing power for their legal tender. Thus the force of law
preserves a measure of immediate purchasing power over some commodities
and the force of sentiment and custom maintains, especially amongst
peasants, a willingness to hoard paper which is really worthless...
If, however, a government refrains from regulations and allows matters to
take their course, essential commodities soon attain a level of price out
of the reach of all but the rich, the worthlessness of the money becomes
apparent, and the fraud upon the public can be concealed no longer."
John Maynard Keynes, Economic Consequences of the Peace, NY, 1920, p. 239-40
"Gold serves no function in society"
Hey moron, Gold's function is to act as money. Why do central banks hold it? Go away troll....
You need to understand that gold is where the elites want to go. That is where they pushed the system starting in 2001 with the invention of the Euro ironically. The Euro is the first non nation state currency that lets the price of gold float on the reserve side of their balance sheet.
They are not stupid, they know that the this fiat dollar run has been maxed out.
Interesting thought about the protection of the $$. And if correct, will trash P.M.s role. Milestones
The European Union will pull together and solve this financial EU crisis,
most probably long before the US gets their house and fiscal US Budget in order, no matter how much some unhappy EU sceptics, mostly in the UK and USA will hope and pray (or should I say " prey " for Europe's failure.
Europe is strong and has overcome much greater challenges than this financial crisis.
Europe is also solving this problem the quickest and best way,by cutting spending and Debt.
The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 upon the foundations of the European Communities.
With over 500 million citizens, the EU generated an estimated 28% share(US$ 16.5 trillion) of the nominal and about 21% (US$14.8 trillion) of the PPP gross world product in 2009.
The problem began and was mostly caused by a contagious US sub-prime crisis
and the US trying to fix this global financial crisis by holding US domestic Interest Rates at Zero and devaluing their US Dollar by stimulus and monetary oversupply of US Dollars,thereby devaluing the USD ever more in the hope to make exports cheaper,as usually only can be found in some 3rd-world Socialist and Communist regime states.
- In my opinion China is right now more of a free-market economy and more capitalist then the increasingly interventionist and protectionist USA .
The US adventure into aggressive protective national socialism is bound to fail
and will eventually end up in bond-yields rising and inflating all Costs of Living CPI.
High US Unemployment and rising CPI, this will result in bigger and deeper problems for the US as most experts in bond-markets, economists and global financal leaders warn already.
The only way OUT of DEBT is of course TO REPAY DEBT and CUT SPENDING !
But the US socio - communist " experiment " would rather like to go down the
dark and murky way of Devaluing US Currency and dictating Zero Rates to fix their
US National Debt of 13.7 Trillion and the yearly Interest Payment of 414 billion US
to creditors and bond-holders in China, Japan and India and the rest of the world.
Of course if Europe would fail, this would be almost as good for some as the second World War, as some speculators here seem to think ?
check out US national Debt,now at 94% of US GDP :
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
The Eu wouldn't come together for yahtzee, much less to stop screwing each other.
No, they are solving it by starving some citizens while robbing others while the banksters get fat and happy.
No, the solution is to default on the debt and issue sovereign currency. Shooting some bankers and congress critters wouldn't hurt either.