Debt Collapse – The Case For $20,000 Gold – Mike Maloney (Full Presentation)

Mike Maloney is the author of the world’s best selling book on precious metals investing. Since 2003 he has been advocating gold and silver as the ultimate means of protecting wealth from the games played by our governments and banking sector. In this 90 minute presentation he lays down his ‘most likely’ scenario for the global economy over the next deacde…short term deflation, followed by significant inflation or even hyperinflation. Here you will learn the true definitions of inflation/deflation, the difference between currency and money, price vs value, ‘Wealth Cycles’, gold and silver accounting for the expansion of fiat currency, gold and silver supply and demand, the differences between the today’s bull market and that of the 1970s, The Debt Collapse, and more.

Hugo Chavez Announces He Will Nationalize Venezuela's Entire Gold Industry

The first (of many) 21st century expropriations of the only true money begins today, after Hugo Chavez just announced that he will "nationalize the gold industry, including extraction and processing, and use its output to boost the country's international reserves." And who can blame him: he is merely doing what FDR did so well back in 1933 with executive order 6102. Our only advice is that he should wait before he sells: with the only option for the central planners now that we are reentering the downslope of the depression, being, as always, to print more money (it can be called anything, but at the end of the day the principle is clear), there is little probability of gold declining substantially for the foreseeable future. As for foreign investors in Venezuela who opened gold mines, we can only hope they were not all that surprised: "The move follows a dispute between his government and foreign miners who say the rules limiting the amount of gold that can be exported from the South American nation hurt their efforts to secure financing and create jobs. The gold industry will be just the latest part of the economy to be put under state control by the socialist leader, who said he would issue the necessary decree in the coming days and called on the military to help control the sector." The good news: gold may finally dip modestly which will simply provide yet another entry point for everyone (increasingly more and more) who has taken Jeremy Grantham's advice and is now fighting the Fed.

From Reuters:

Toronto-listed Rusoro, owned by Russia's Agapov family, is the only large gold miner operating in Venezuela. It produced 100,000 ounces last year.

"I have here the laws allowing the state to exploit gold and all related activities ... we are going to nationalize the gold and we are going to convert it, among other things, into international reserves because gold continues to increase in value," Chavez said in a phone call to state television.

The announcement came a day after an opposition legislator revealed a report showing the government's top finance officials were recommending the repatriation of 90 percent of Venezuela's gold reserves held abroad.

The government has not commented on the report, which the opposition legislator said Chavez had yet to approve.

"We've managed to increase the international reserves. We have close to 12 or 13 billion dollars in gold reserves. We can't allow it to continue to be taken away," the president said, referring to reserves held in banks overseas.

Some more on why this move is very beneficial in the long-run:

Venezuela has some of Latin America's largest gold deposits, buried below the jungles south of the Orinoco river. According to official figures, formal mining in the country produces 4.3 tons a year.

Chavez agreed last year to let gold miners export up to 50 percent of production, from 30 percent previously. The other 50 percent must be sold to the central bank.

But that did not satisfy foreign companies like Rusoro, which said the limits made it much harder for them to secure financing abroad, develop projects and create local jobs.

One victim of the dispute has been a huge but long-troubled project called Las Cristinas. It has been in limbo since the government canceled a development license with another Canadian miner, Crystallex, in February.

Rusoro had expressed interest in Las Cristinas, which has not been developed since the 1980s but has reserves estimated at 17 million ounces. Locals once found a 1-kilo (2.2-lb) nugget there.

Net, net: millions in ounces of potential gold supply are about to be taken out of future circulation, courtesy of the uber-modern Venezuelan extraction and mining infrastructure. Which is why if gold does dip on expectations of Venezuelan dumping, don't expect said dip to last more than a few milliseconds.

McAlvany Weekly Commentary

Too Little Energy or Too Much Worthless Money? An Interview With Alexander Landia

Posted on 17 August 2011.

About This Week’s Show:
- It’s a myth that speculators run up the price of oil. Only 20% of the oil is hedged at one time.
- The concept of “Peak Energy” is currently non-existent due to the abundance of coal and it’s many uses.
- Real inflation is running at 9.6% (Using the index from when Volker was chairman of the Fed) therefore, forcing money into paper oil as a hedge against currency devaluation.

About the Guest:
Alexander Landia, Chairman of the Nominations and Compensation Committee, member of the Strategy Committee. Landia worked for Accenture, the largest consulting company in the world. As the partner of Accenture, he was General Director of Accenture Russia until 2006. In 2004 he was appointed Global Gas Lead Partner, responsible for Accenture’s global business in the gas industry while based in Moscow.

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The Aftermath of the Housing Bubble

Gerald Celente : the EU is on the verge of collapse

Gerald Celente : I have been yelling Gold $2000/oz now for very long time , and we have picked a bottom for Gold around $255/oz in 2000/2001 and when it hit $275/oz we said that's the beginning of Gold bull run and the only reason we are putting a ceiling on gold at $2000/oz is we are concerned that the central banks and the FED are going to do something to not so much to drive down its price but who knows if they'll put a peg on it or not , they have done it before , and when you seen what's going on in Switzerland for example all of a sudden they are changing the rules and now they are talking about pegging the Swiss franc to the Euro , I have been invested only in Gold and Swiss francs through the last year and now it is mostly just Gold .... The Fiat currencies are not worth the paper they are not printed on and people are getting to know that , the only reason the Gold is going up is because the value of the dollar is going down

Will Canadian Oil Go to China Instead of US?

The US imports approximately half of its oil from Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Venezuela. The US is Canada's biggest purchaser of crude oil, but now Canada has a potential client, China. Is Canada looking to the future on behalf of its economy? In the past Canada has claimed it would not do business with countries who don't respect human rights. Why the change of heart? Stefan Molyneux, host of Freedomain Radio, tells us why.

S&P Slashes US Growth Forecast, Says Current Crisis Is Worse Than 2008 As US At "Risk Of Default", Ridicules "Transitory"

First they cut the rating of the US, then the went and downgraded Google, now S&P is going for the "treason trifecta" by just releasing a report which literally takes the US to the toolshed. Among many other things, the rating agency just cut US growth for the next 3 years. To wit: "While July data finally showed a slight improvement in the U.S. economy, it's not enough to support expectations that the second half of the year will see a bounce in growth. We now expect to see an even slower recovery than the half-speed we earlier expected. We now expect just 1.9% growth in the third quarter and 1.8% in the fourth, to bring 2011 calendar year growth closer to 1.7% instead of 2.4% we earlier expected. We also downwardly revised growth expectations for 2012 and 2013, as a more drawn-out recovery is factored into our forecast." We wonder how soon before the realization that the US is in fact contracting will force S&P to downgrade America even further, a move which will force Moodys and Fitch to come up with a AAAA rating for the US in order to keep the weighted average rating at current levels. It gets even worse though as S&P now openly brings the 2008 analogy: "The markets' violent swings in early August resurrected fears of the market meltdown, such as the one in 2008 when Lehman Brothers went under and Reserve Fund broke the buck. Currently, the crisis is considered to be much more severe, with U.S. sovereign debt at risk of default. The low Treasury yields indicated that markets were expecting Congress to come to its senses and reach a deal. However, the wait and the last-minute deal, which left a lot to be desired, only increased worries that the government will do more harm than good. Confidence in the recovery and in U.S. policymaking has hit new lows. After U.S. sovereign debt lost its triple-A status and financial markets unwound, consumer confidence hit a 31-year low and manufacturing sentiment readings contracted." And the kicker: S&P, yes S&P, makes fun of the Fed, and specifically the "transitory" nature of the economic collapse: "Continued weak growth after sharply downward GDP revisions has made the "temporary argument" a less plausible explanation for the slew of bad news for the first half of the year. At least the GDP revisions make the persistently high unemployment rate make more sense. But the revised data also indicate a much weaker outlook than we previously expected. As the boosts from rebuilding inventories and fiscal stimulus unwound, consumer spending and housing couldn't cover the hole, because the former is still working off excess debts and the latter excess supply. The recovery comprised a first-half average growth of just 0.8%." And that is how you respond to endless scapegoating that now blames the S&P for the collapse. Look for S&P to make the FBI's most wanted list very shortly. (more)

Foreigners Net Sellers of Canadian Securities for First Time in 15 Months

Foreigners reduced their holdings of Canadian securities for the first time in more than a year in June, as the value of bonds maturing exceeded new purchases.

Foreign investors sold a net C$3.46 billion ($3.53 billion) of Canadian securities, the first reduction in 15 months, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists forecast a net purchase of C$10 billion according to the median of four responses taken by Bloomberg News.

About C$11.8 billion of Canadian bonds matured in June while foreigners bought C$10.3 billion of debt to replace them, and investors divested of another net C$981 million of money- market paper.

International purchases of Canadian bonds have set records the last two years, as Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has focused on keeping Canada’s deficit and debt smaller than other Group of Seven nations. Foreign holdings of Canadian bonds have increased 30 percent since the end of 2008, today’s report said.

“We don’t see this net selling as part of a trend, particularly with Canadas now offering a credit rating premium versus Treasuries,” Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets in Toronto, wrote in a note to clients.

Standard & Poor’s lowered the U.S. government’s credit rating to AA+ from the top grade of AAA on Aug. 5. Canada’s bonds are rated AAA by New York-based S&P.

The yield on Canada’s benchmark three-year government bond rose to 1.17 percent today from 1.15 percent yesterday. The price of the 2.25 percent coupon security due August 2014 fell 4 cents to C$103.14 at 10:43 a.m. Toronto time.

Today’s report also said that Canadians bought a net C$343 million of foreign securities in June, led by stocks.

As Chavez Pulls Venezuela's Gold From JP Morgan, Is The Great Scramble For Physical Starting?

In addition to the nationalization of his gold insutry, Chavez earlier also announced that he would recover virtually all gold that Venezuela hold abroad, starting with 99 tons of gold at the Bank of England. As the WSJ reported earlier, "The Bank of England recently received a request from the Venezuelan government about transferring the 99 tons of gold Venezuela holds in the bank back to Venezuela, said a person familiar with the matter. A spokesman from the Bank of England declined to comment whether Venezuela had any gold on deposit at the bank." That's great, but not really a gamechanger. After all the BOE should have said gold. What could well be a gamechanger is that according to an update from Bloomberg, Venezuela has gold with, you guessed it, JP Morgan, Barclays, and Bank Of Nova Scotia. As most know, JPM is one of the 5 vault banks. The fun begins if Chavez demands physical delivery of more than 10.6 tons of physical because as today's CME update of metal depository statistics, JPM only has 338,303 ounces of registered gold in storage. Or roughly 10.6 tons. A modest deposit of this size would cause some serious white hair at JPM as the bank scrambles to find the replacement gold, which has already been pledged about 100 times across the various paper markets. Keep an eye on gold in the illiquid after hour market. The overdue scramble for delivery may be about to begin.

From the CME:

Taxed Into Oblivion

In the United States today, we are being taxed into oblivion, yet it is being done so stealthily that most Americans don't even realize what is happening. Most people are fixated on federal income tax rates, but the federal income tax is only one of the dozens of different taxes that each of us pay each year. The politicians have learned that people get really upset when income tax rates are raised, so they have found hundreds of other ways to raise taxes on us. What most taxpayers in the United States today are facing is "death by a thousand cuts". When you add up all forms of taxation from all levels of government, approximately 40 percent of all the income in the country is taken in as taxes by government. Large numbers of Americans end up paying well over 50 percent of their income in taxes, and many of them don't even realize that it is happening. We truly are being taxed into oblivion, and yet the politicians just keep coming back for more.

On all levels, government just keeps growing, and all of this government has got to be paid for somehow. Politicians have become masters at finding ways to tax us so that we won't even feel it. They have an endless hunger to spend more money, and they depend on us to feed that addiction. Today, the combination of federal government spending, state government spending and local government spending now accounts for a larger share of U.S. GDP than at any other time in our history.

Yes, federal income tax rates were significantly higher 30 or 40 years ago. But virtually every other tax you can think of has gone way up since then or did not exist back then.

Federal income taxes definitely still hurt, but the reality is that where we really get hit is in all of the other taxes that we pay. American families pay Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, state income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, death taxes, various excise taxes, gasoline taxes, tire taxes, utility taxes, liquor taxes, telephone taxes and cigarette taxes just to name a few. The truth is that there are dozens and dozens of different taxes that most Americans pay each year, and there are a whole bunch of others that get passed on to us through businesses that we deal with.

Speaking of cigarette taxes, there is legislation in Congress right now that would send taxes on tobacco products absolutely skyrocketing yet again.

I don't smoke and I never will smoke, but I find the attack on smokers by our politicians to be seriously offensive. If smoking is legal, then leave them alone. Don't tax them into oblivion just because you don't like what they are doing.

An excerpt from S. 1403 (The IDEA Full Funding Act) is posted below. You will notice that a portion of this legislation even refers to itself as the "Saving Lives by Lowering Tobacco Use Act". They are openly admitting that they want to make tobacco so expensive that people cannot afford to use it....

In the United States today, we are being taxed into oblivion, yet it is being done so stealthily that most Americans don't even realize what is happening. Most people are fixated on federal income tax rates, but the federal income tax is only one of the dozens of different taxes that each of us pay each year. The politicians have learned that people get really upset when income tax rates are raised, so they have found hundreds of other ways to raise taxes on us. What most taxpayers in the United States today are facing is "death by a thousand cuts". When you add up all forms of taxation from all levels of government, approximately 40 percent of all the income in the country is taken in as taxes by government. Large numbers of Americans end up paying well over 50 percent of their income in taxes, and many of them don't even realize that it is happening. We truly are being taxed into oblivion, and yet the politicians just keep coming back for more.

On all levels, government just keeps growing, and all of this government has got to be paid for somehow. Politicians have become masters at finding ways to tax us so that we won't even feel it. They have an endless hunger to spend more money, and they depend on us to feed that addiction. Today, the combination of federal government spending, state government spending and local government spending now accounts for a larger share of U.S. GDP than at any other time in our history.

Yes, federal income tax rates were significantly higher 30 or 40 years ago. But virtually every other tax you can think of has gone way up since then or did not exist back then.

Federal income taxes definitely still hurt, but the reality is that where we really get hit is in all of the other taxes that we pay. American families pay Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, state income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, death taxes, various excise taxes, gasoline taxes, tire taxes, utility taxes, liquor taxes, telephone taxes and cigarette taxes just to name a few. The truth is that there are dozens and dozens of different taxes that most Americans pay each year, and there are a whole bunch of others that get passed on to us through businesses that we deal with.

Speaking of cigarette taxes, there is legislation in Congress right now that would send taxes on tobacco products absolutely skyrocketing yet again.

I don't smoke and I never will smoke, but I find the attack on smokers by our politicians to be seriously offensive. If smoking is legal, then leave them alone. Don't tax them into oblivion just because you don't like what they are doing.

An excerpt from S. 1403 (The IDEA Full Funding Act) is posted below. You will notice that a portion of this legislation even refers to itself as the "Saving Lives by Lowering Tobacco Use Act". They are openly admitting that they want to make tobacco so expensive that people cannot afford to use it.... (more)