Iran threatens to hit any country used to attack its soil

Source: BI-ME with Reuters , Author: Posted by BI-ME staff
Posted: Mon February 6, 2012 8:58 am

INTERNATIONAL. Iran will target any country used as a launchpad for attacks against its soil, the deputy Revolutionary Guards commander said, expanding Tehran's range of threats in an increasingly volatile stand-off with world powers over its nuclear ambitions.
Last week, Iran's supreme clerical leader threatened reprisals for the West's new ban on Iranian oil exports and the U.S. defence secretary was quoted as saying Israel was likely to bomb Iran within months to stop it assembling nuclear weapons.
Although broadened and sharpened financial sanctions have begun to inflict serious economic pain in Iran, its oil minister asserted on Saturday it would make no nuclear retreat even if its crude oil exports ground to a halt.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian energy purposes. But its recent shift of uranium enrichment to a mountain bunker possibly impervious to conventional bombing, and refusal to negotiate peaceful guarantees for the programme or open up to U.N. nuclear inspectors, have thickened an atmosphere of brewing confrontation, raising fears for Gulf oil supplies.
"Any spot used by the enemy for hostile operations against Iran will be subjected to retaliatory aggression by our armed forces," Hossein Salami, deputy head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, told the semi-official Fars news agency on Sunday.
The Guards began two days of military manoeuvres in southern Iran on Saturday in another show of force for Iran's adversaries associated with tensions over its disputed nuclear programme.

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Don't sell your gold bars: Hedge Fund manager warns

NEW YORK: The University of Texas Investment Management Co. shouldn't sell the Gold Bars it bought as a hedge against inflation and financial crisis, says the director who urged the move.

"I'm against selling any of the gold," Kyle Bass – a managing partner at hedge fund Hayman Capital Management – told a meeting of the fund directors in Austin, Texas on Thursday.

"As every day goes by, I see deflation in the things you own and inflation in the things you need."

Last April Bass recommended and advised on the conversion to physical Gold Bars of futures contracts – which set a price for future delivery, but which are most typically settled in cash, not metal – held for the various educational endowment funds run by University of Texas Investment Management Co. (Utimco).

Initially costing $500 million in July 2010 – and worth $991.7m by the time physical Gold Bars were delivered to Utimco's custodian, HSBC Bank in New York, 10 months ago – its gold position is now valued at $1.2 billion, according to Utimco's CEO, Bruce Zimmerman.

The Gold Investment was "a hedge against lack of confidence in financial assets due to lack of government fiscal and monetary discipline," said CEO Zimmerman to Asset International's AI-CIO magazine in July 2010. Utimco had begun "laddering in" exposure to Gold Futures "over a number of months."

Postponed Till "Tomorrow"; Juncker Issues ultimatum "Comply or Default"

MISH'S
Global Economic
Trend Analysis

 

It's Groundhog Day once again as Greek crisis talks for debt deal pushed to Monday

Coalition backers held a five-hour meeting late Sunday with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos to hammer out a deal with debt inspectors representing eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund — but again failed to reach an agreement.

Leaders of parties supporting the Greece's coalition government say crisis talks for massive new debt deals will continue Monday.

Juncker Issues ultimatum "Comply or Default"

The theater of the absurd continues for yet another day with Juncker's ultimatum: Comply or default

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John Williams - Unemployment Rate at a Staggering 22.5%

"Courtesy of ShadowStats.com"

James Dines: Owning 'Wealth In The Ground' Is Your Best Bet to Survival

James Dines has been in the business of making bold calls for over 50 years. In this deep-diving interview, he minces no words about the dire risks the US economy - and the world at large - faces at this juncture.

Simply put, he sees the excessive credit in the financial system as having placed the global economy on a collision-course with hyperinflation.

Unlike past periods of turmoil, there are no truly 'safe' places for investment capital to hide. Geographic markets and almost all asset classes are positively correlated these days. They share many of the same risks and if a systemic crash occurs, they will crash together.

At this point, says Mr Dines, you want to invest in assets that can not be printed away by government desperation. You want to hold hard assets; "wealth in the ground" as Dines says (physical commodities, mining companies, etc). They're your best best to make money faster at a rate faster than inflation is going to happen.

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Pento - Bond Bubble to Destroy US Dollar & Restore Gold

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Americans talk about an Israeli strike on Iran, but prepare own offensive

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report February 4, 2012, 11:16 AM (GMT+02:00)

1,000 Israeli paratroops jump in big drill

 

US Secretary of State Leon Panetta has been outspoken about a possible Israeli offensive against Iran taking place as of April and one American TV channel theorized simplistically Friday, Feb. 3, about Israel's tactics. At the same time, no US source is leveling on the far more extensive American, Saudi, British, French and Gulf states' preparations going forward for an offensive against the Islamic Republic.
Tehran too is gearing up for conflict: The Iranian Guards Ground Forces chief Brig. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour Saturday, Feb. 4 announced the start of a three-week exercise in southern Iran and the Strait of Hormuz under conditions of war. debkafile: The "exercise" is in fact an Iranian military buildup ahead of a possible American or Israel attack.
debkafile's military sources report a steady flow of many thousands of US troops for some weeks to two strategic islands within reach of Iran, Oman's Masirah just south of the Strait of Hormuz and Socotra, between Yemen and the Horn of Africa. (DEBKA-Net-Weekly 526 of Jan. 27 was the first world publication to reveal the massive concentration of American might on the two islands.)
This concentration was held by the White House as sufficiently urgent to relent on its refusal to admit the ousted Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Salah to America for medical treatment. He won permission in exchange for his consent to the Socotra military buildup.
There are now two potential triggers for a Middle East confrontation with Iran. They are closely interrelated: The urgent need for action this year to preempt Iran's nuclear bomb program before it is too late and the Syrian army's appalling and escalating butchery of civilians.

Jeffrey Tucker makes the Case Against the Federal Reserve and the Banking Cartel

Iran’s currency war heats up and the rush to metals

By Dr Jeffrey Lewis
The EU and the United States have implemented fresh sanctions against Iran targeting its oil exports. The tough measures are intended to curtail Iran’s nuclear program that Western nations believe is aimed at making nuclear weapons, while Iran claims that their nuclear program is for peaceful energy generation purposes instead.

The sanctions were met with an increasingly intense currency war as Iran and Russia plan to replace the U.S. Dollar with their own currencies for bilateral trade. The replacement of the U.S. Dollar for Iran’s trade with Russia was agreed upon after Iran had already replaced the Dollar in its oil transactions with India, China and Japan, according to the Iranian state run Fars news agency.

Making yet another case for holding Gold and Silver is that the European Union nations have been banned from trading in gold, silver, diamonds and petrochemical products with the Iranian central bank and with eight other entities to be named on January 26th.

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Greece PSI still nowhere in sight/SLV short 26million oz/China heading for hard landing/ MFGLobal on the missing funds/

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:

Gold finished higher by $11.40 to $1758.50. At first, gold had been repelled from the banker's strong resistance $1750 line in the sand early in the European session. However it then recovered to pierce this resistance and finish well above the resistance to close at its high. The fact that gold did this prior to the jobs report is definitely an extremely bullish sign. Silver finished higher by 43 cents to $34.15. Tomorrow is the jobs report and as always the bankers monkey around with the gold and silver metal prior to its release. Expect a big revision from the adjustments to the B/D model which occur in the January month and announced always on the first Friday of February. Let us head over to the comex and assess trading, inventory movements and amounts of metal standing.

The total gold comex OI rose by 4961 contracts to finish the comex session at 430,094 from 425,133.
The front delivery month for gold saw its OI fall from 3458 to 1783 for a loss of 1675 contracts. Since we lost 1036 contracts through delivery notices we lost another 639 notices or 63900 oz to cash settlements.
Blythe must have been very busy today. The next big delivery month is April and here the OI rose to 237,961 from 231,072. The estimated volume at the gold comex today was 145,684. The confirmed volume yesterday registered 132,408 which are both very weak volume numbers.

The total silver comex OI rose by 174 contracts. The front options expiry month of February saw its OI rise from 141 to 191 for a gain of 50 contracts even though there was no delivery notices yesterday. Thus we gained additional silver ounces standing and lost nothing to cash settlements. Generally this is a sign that London England has run out of silver metal. We are now approaching the next delivery month of March which is less than 4 weeks away and here the OI fell from 47,300 contracts to exactly 46,000 contracts for a loss of 1,300 contracts. No doubt that some rolled over from March to May. The estimated volume at the silver comex was 58,718 contracts and the confirmed volume yesterday was 51,265. The volume here has been rising and this may be due to the high frequency day traders who are jumping on the bandwagon thinking that silver is in play due to lack of metal from London. They are day traders and you see from the OI numbers that they exit their positions at the end of the day.

I Can’t Take It Anymore! When Will The Government Quit Putting Out Fraudulent Employment Statistics?

On Friday, the entire financial world celebrated when it was announced that the unemployment rate in the United States had fallen to 8.3 percent. That is the lowest it has been since February 2009, and it came as an unexpected surprise for financial markets that are hungry for some good news.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nonfarm payrolls jumped by 243,000 during the month of January.  You can read the full employment report right here.  Based on this news, pundits all over the world were declaring that the U.S. economy is back.  Stocks continued to rise on Friday and the Dow is hovering near a 4 year high.  So does this mean that our economic problems are over?  Of course not.  A closer look at the numbers reveals just how fraudulent these employment statistics really are.  Between December 2011 and January 2012, the number of Americans "not in the labor force" increased by a whopping 1.2 million.  That was the largest increase ever in that category for a single month.  That is how the federal government is getting the unemployment rate to go down.  The government is simply pretending that huge numbers of unemployed Americans don't want to be part of the labor force anymore.  As you will see below, the employment situation in America is not improving.  Yet everyone in the mainstream media is dancing around as if the economic crisis has been cancelled.  I can't take it anymore!  It is beyond ridiculous that so many intelligent people continue to buy in to such fraudulent numbers.
The truth is that the labor force participation rate declined dramatically in January.  For those unfamiliar with this statistic, the labor force participation rate is the percentage of working age Americans that are either employed or that are unemployed and considered to be looking for a job.

NYTimes patronizes gold, whitewashes fiat, overlooks the big questions

Submitted by cpowell on Fri, 2012-02-03 02:29. Section: Daily Dispatches
In a Focus On Gold, History Repeats Itself
By Floyd Norris
The New York Times
Thursday, February 2, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/business/in-rise-of-gold-bugs-history-...
As it was in 1980, could it be again in 2012?
The 1980 presidential election was fought by a Democratic incumbent weakened by a poor economy amid worries that the United States had lost its ability to compete in the world. Gold prices had risen to unprecedented levels as the election approached, and the Republican nominee hinted he might propose a return to a gold standard.
That Republican, Ronald Reagan, won the election and soon appointed a commission to study the role of gold in monetary systems. To gold bugs, it appeared to be the best chance in decades to move the country toward gold and away from what they like to call "fiat money," a currency anchored by nothing more than government dictates.
Last month, Newt Gingrich, seeking to widen his support in the days leading up to the South Carolina primary, promised that he would appoint a new gold commission. "Part of our approach ought to be to re-establish something Ronald Reagan did in 1981 and that is to have a commission on gold to look at the whole concept of how do we get back to hard money," he said in a speech.

China's gold output and demand could be far greater than ‘official' data suggest

Comment from Jeff Nichols suggests that Chinese gold production and consumption may be considerably higher than the statistics released by the country would indicate.

Author: Lawrence Williams
Posted:  Thursday , 02 Feb 2012

LONDON - 
Following the recent Mineweb article on Chinese gold production and consumption (see China enhances position as world No. 1 gold producer - but where's it all going?) we have received the following comment s from specialist precious metals analyst, Jeff Nichols of American Precious Metals Advisors and Rosland Capital, which suggests that both Chinese gold production and consumption may be considerably higher than that suggested by official and semi-official statistics coming out of the Asian giant.
Nichols avers that China's domestic gold mine output is, without a doubt, much higher than reported. Actual gold mine output could easily be close to 400 tons and possibly more for the following reasons:

• The China Gold Association (CGA) numbers reflect production by their members only -- but omit gold mined by non-members.  These include many small, unofficial mining operations some of which are illegal existing in the "underground economy".  The CGA data also excludes production from mines owned and operated by the military, which is significant according to sources.  Not to be overlooked is by-product output from copper, silver, and other metal mining activity.  Again, this is significant though hard to know just how significant. 

Israel: Iran's nuclear arms program is complete, its missiles can reach US

DEBKAfile Special Report February 2, 2012, 3:21 PM (GMT+02:00)

IDF 

Military Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi

Iran has completed the development of a nuclear weapon and awaits nothing more than a sign from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to start assembling its first nuclear bomb, said Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Major General Aviv Kochavi on Thursday, February 2. Assembling a bomb would take up to a year, Kochavi estimated. With 100 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20 percent grade and another 4 tons of uranium enriched to 3.5 percent already in stock, Iran would need another two years to make four nuclear bombs.
Therefore, by the end of 2012 or early 2013 Iran may have a single nuclear bomb, but by 2015 the figure would jump to four or five.
The officer was essentially amplifying the words of his predecessor, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin, who said on Jan. 26 that as long ago as 2007 or 2008, Iran had already passed the point of no return in developing nuclear weapons.  Kochavi agreed with him that none of the sanctions imposed thus far had persuaded Iran to slow down, least of all shut down, its drive for a nuclear weapon.
His comments coincided with the findings published Thursday by the Enterprise Institute, an American think tank, that Iran would be able to manufacture a 15-kiloton nuclear bomb as soon as August of this year, just seven months from now.

Kyle Bass is “Against Selling” any of UT’s Gold

By jturbin

February 3, 2012 11:02 AM EST

Last year the University of Texas Investment Management Co. took delivery of over more than 6,000 gold bars – worth nearly $1 billion at the time – based in part on advice from noted hedge fund manager Kyle Bass.

Yesterday, Mr. Bass stated at a meeting among the endowment’s fund directors that he is “against selling any of the gold,” according to a Bloomberg report. Bass cited “the need for a hedge against mounting risks driven by government deficits in the U.S. and Europe,” the report noted.

Bloomberg went on to say that “The $19.1 billion in endowment funds overseen by the University of Texas Investment Management Co., or Utimco, lost almost 3.8 percent on invested assets in the four months through December, preliminary figures distributed today show.” The report did not specify which positions contributed most to the fund’s decline, but with gold falling from $1,825 to $1,564 from September 1 – December 31, the yellow metal undoubtedly played a role.

Jim Rogers on Ben Bernanke, the Dollar and "Saving the Saver"

States seek currencies made of silver and gold

By Blake Ellis @CNNMoney February 3, 2012: 10:53 AM ET
 
Worried that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. dollar are on the brink of collapse, more than a dozen states have proposed using their own alternative currencies of silver and gold.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A growing number of states are seeking shiny new currencies made of silver and gold.

Worried that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. dollar are on the brink of collapse, lawmakers from 13 states, including Minnesota, Tennessee, Iowa, South Carolina and Georgia, are seeking approval from their state governments to either issue their own alternative currency or explore it as an option. Just three years ago, only three states had similar proposals in place.

"In the event of hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System ... the State's governmental finances and private economy will be thrown into chaos," said North Carolina Republican Representative Glen Bradley in a currency bill he introduced last year.

Unlike individual communities, which are allowed to create their own currency -- as long as it is easily distinguishable from U.S. dollars -- the Constitution bans states from printing their own paper money or issuing their own currency. But it allows the states to make "gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts."

To the state legislators who are proposing state-issued currencies, that means gold and silver are fair game, said Edwin Vieira, an alternative currency proponent and attorney specializing in Constitutional law. And since gold has grown exponentially more valuable, while the U.S. dollar continues to lose ground, the notion has become increasingly appealing to state lawmakers, he said.

The state gold rush: Utah became the first state to introduce its own alternative currency when Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill into law last March that recognized gold and silver coins issued by the U.S. Mint as an acceptable form of payment. Under the law, the coins -- which include American Gold and Silver Eagles -- are treated the same as U.S. dollars for tax purposes, eliminating capital gains taxes.

Silver And The Shift To Measuring Wealth In Ounces Instead Of Dollars

China gold demand soars to 891 tonnes, India's 868 tonnes in 2011: RSBL

By Sreekumar Raghavan
MUMBAI (Commodity Online): India, traditionally , the largest consumer of gold, witnessed a significant drop in demand and consumption in 2011 but China, the largest producer of the yellow metal, witnessed a stunning surge in demand.

The reason for the spike in Chinese imports in recent months, traders say, is that throughout the supply chain the Chinese Gold industry was aggressively building inventory ahead of Lunar New Year, after experience in 2011 when the country ran short, according to an assessment by Mr Prithviraj Kothari, Director, Riddi Siddhi Bullions Ltd (RSBL).

In an interview to Commodity Online, Mr Kothari said that the effect of building of up China gold inventory was stunning. “The 189 tonnes of imports in October and November compares with total imports for the whole of 2009 of just 45 tonnes.”

Silver gains 20% in January 2012; is it a beginning?

By Debbie Carlson
Commodities put in a strong January performance, but few markets earned as much as silver did in the first month of 2012, gaining 20% during the period. That put silver in second place for the strongest commodity futures markets, beaten only by orange juice.

As February dawns, Silver continues to build on its gains, but it is hitting some resistance as it targets the $34 an ounce level. On Wednesday, March silver futures on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled at $33.837 an ounce.

Silver has been on a solid uptrend since hitting a low of Dec. 29 of $26.1450 for the March contract.

Adrian Day, president, Adrian Day Asset Management, said much of the reason why silver rallied so much in January was because it had fallen so much during December. On Nov. 30 March silver settled at $32.804 and on Dec. 30 it closed at $27.915, a 15% swoon in one month alone. Silver wasn’t alone in its December descent, many other markets including Gold and other commodities tanked in December. Likewise, many commodities rose last month.

Day said silver’s trip under $30 may have enticed bargain hunters who were able to pick up the metal at prices not seen since late September.

'Next target for Gold at $ 1,800/oz, for Silver at $37/oz'

By Richard Russell

Last Updated : 03 February 2012 at 20:50 IST

The great GOP debate continues with Gingrich finally dropping behind the Mitt.

Meanwhile, the stock market is caught in the puzzle of will Europe emerge whole from its current troubles, or will the Eurozone fall apart like a deflating balloon? That plus the following question: Does the US face another four years of a socialist president who seeks to solve all problems by either taxing "the rich" or throwing trillions of man-made dollars at the screw-up in question?

The poor man in the street is facing questions and doubts. Will he be at the same job a year from now? And if he gets a pink slip will he be able to find another job?

If the year 2012 has a title, the title should be "uncertainty."

Nobody's asking, "What happens if there's a recession in the next year?" Or "What if unemployment is 9% or more at presidential election time?" If either of the above occur, the GOP could run a donkey, and it would be our next president. Obama must have a good economy to win.

The effect of FOMC statement on precious metals

By Dr Jeffrey Lewis

Last Updated : 03 February 2012 at 21:00 IST

Among the recent price consolidation, it should not be forgotten that the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve Board decided to leave rates at 0.0% to 0.25% until at least late 2014, according to the FOMC statement released on January 25th.
In their statement, “the Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that economic conditions--including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run--are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.”

In addition, the Fed indicated on January 25th that it would release the projected direction of interest rates by its seventeen members and would take the historic move of setting an inflation target of two percent. Nevertheless, putting off the first possible adjustment to rates until late 2014 somewhat eclipsed the Fed’s apparent intention of increasing transparency, while at the same time sending further signals for diversifying out of paper.

Bernanke reassures market that the Fed has options
In the press conference following the FOMC statement, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke clarified that the decision to leave interest rates unchanged for over three years was not cast in stone. He noted that the bank’s capacity to forecast out that far was limited, but that the Fed could adjust rates depending upon economic conditions.

SilverDoctors: Silver Rebounding After Post NFP Raid

SilverDoctors: Silver Rebounding After Post NFP Raid: Somewhere Andrew Maguire's old buddies are having a beer and laughing at their continual fleecing of the sheople with the cartel's standard ...

Richard Russell - Watch Gold, 2012 Fated to be a Monster Year

Louise Yamada - Gold & Silver Closing in on Bullish Breakouts

Rob Arnott - The Coming Inflation is Going to Destroy Fortunes

Peter Schiff - Gold Headed Higher as Dollar to Continue Plunge

Gold: The target is between $2,750 to $3,000 by June 2013

By David Nichols
It's not often that a financial market tells us its intentions in a clear and obvious way. But occasionally it happens.

And it just happened last Wednesday.

First, to set the stage: Gold came into last week off a 17-week correction, with the direction of the next 17 weeks still up in the air. The big correction in 2008 lasted 34 weeks, so gold was at a critical balance point heading into the Fed meeting -- it was either going to move into the next up leg now, or in 17 weeks, in early May.



This was a major balance point that could have gone either way, mostly because there is a big scary bogey still out there, namely another round of deflation and de-leveraging emanating from Europe.

The last recession in 2008, with its accompanying financial crisis, caused a massive bout of deflation, which slaughtered gold and other financial assets, while triggering a major run up in the dollar.

So it's critical to know if a similar bout of deflation is coming now. And gold is a highly sensitive barometer on this. If we pay careful attention, gold will give us the accurate forecast.

Silver Price Forecast And The Shift To Measuring Wealth In Gold Ounces Instead Of Dollars.

February 2, 2012

Silver Price Forecast:

The debt-based monetary system creates an illusion of wealth. It allows for claims on real goods to significantly exceed the actual amount of real goods. You then have a number of people believing they have wealth, since they have claims (pieces of paper or tokens) showing that they have these real assets, whereas, in reality, if everyone was to claim the real goods, there would not be enough to go around.
The high debt levels, in some way, represent the extent to which there are more claims than the actual underlying real assets.
During the period of credit extension – that has been for at least 80 years – most businesses are set up to take advantage of this system. The system allows for an easier way to increase wealth (illusionary), since only claims on real assets need to be increased, instead of the actual real assets.
As you come to the end of the credit extension cycle, most businesses are dependent on this credit extension, either directly or indirectly. When the debts become too heavy to bear (no one knows the day or the hour, but there are signs), the debt bubble will burst, and over time eliminate all those business opportunities brought about by the debt-based system, as well as the businesses dependent on it.

Gold may hit $2,000 within 3 months: James Turk

Last Updated : 02 February 2012 at 18:00 IST

James Turk, Chairman and founder of GoldMoney, claims that the 2012 bottom for Gold came during the first week in January. If the year's low is already history and if his projection that gold will hit the $2,000/oz mark within three months is on target, you do the math. "Gold is way too cheap," he tells in this exclusive interview.

The Gold Report: Given the volatile 2011 market and the fact that gold trades at seasonally lower prices in the summer, James, what led you to say you believe we've already hit the low for the gold price in 2012?

James Turk: We started this year in an unusual position. Normally, we see seasonal strength in the last quarter. We didn't get it. We'd been in a correction since the high in Silver back in April 2011. The high in gold came during the summer, which was very unusual, but basically both metals have been moving sideways. Starting from the end of a correction, value is more important than seasonality. Clearly, gold and silver both represent good, undervalued assets at the moment.

The other factor is continuing problems in the financial system. The European banks are still on the brink and many American banks are in a similar situation. Questions about the currency—whether the euro will survive—and the ongoing sovereign debt issue will cause people to look at the precious metals. I've said we saw the low in the gold price the first week of January, and the further into the year we get without going lower, the greater the probability that it was, in fact, the low for the year.

German Central Bank 228 Billion Euros in Debt Rescuing Europe; Bundesbank President Criticizes Merkel's Fiscal Pact, Says "No Grounds for Eurobonds"

MISH'S
Global Economic
Trend Analysis 

Both Angela Merkel and the Bundesbank are walking an extremely fine line of economic policies and treaty arrangements that appear to be in violation of policy statements made by the German Supreme Court regarding transfer unions. Moreover, the Bundesbank president is now in what amounts to an open Feud with Merkel.

Bundesbank 228 Billion Euros in Debt Rescuing Europe

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at The Telegraph reports Bundesbank Sinks Deeper Into Debt Saving Europe

The operations are part of the European Central Bank's 'TARGET2' network of automatic payments between the national central banks of the Euroland club. The Bundesbank has already provided €496bn (£413bn) to countries in trouble, chiefly Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain.

The Bundesbank - the dominant body in the euro system - used to keep a stock of €270bn of private securities (refinance credit) before the start of the financial crisis. This was depleted last year as it sold assets to meet growing demands on the TARGET2 scheme.

Once the debt drama began to engulf the bigger economies, the Bundesbank was forced to borrow money to meet its obligations to offset capital flight, since it refused to sell its stash of gold. It now owes €228bn to German banks.

Survey of European Banks Shows a Sharp Cutback in Lending; Three Reasons LTRO Will Not Get Banks to Lend

MISH'S
Global Economic
Trend Analysis

The LTRO may have ignited the bond markets and the stock market but it did not do anything for bank lending. The New York Times reports Survey of European Banks Shows a Sharp Cut in Lending

Banks in the euro area cut lending sharply at the end of 2011, according to data published Wednesday, raising concern that Europe was on the verge of a credit crisis that could lead to a deeper recession than expected.

A quarterly survey of commercial banks by the European Central Bank showed a surge in the number of institutions that were becoming more restrictive about who they lent to, because the banks themselves were having trouble raising money and were under pressure from regulators to reduce risk.

“It is obvious that we see a deleveraging, a retrenching process unfolding,” Thomas Mirow, the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said in an interview last week. He said the figures from the Bank for International Settlements showed “this is not just perception but reality.” The reconstruction bank provides credit to support the development of free markets in the former Soviet bloc.  

Obama Releases Details on His Plan to Bail Out Banks, Fannie Mae, Hedge Funds, Wall Street, Fixing MERS and Screwing Taxpayers at Same Time; Key Aspects of Plan as Presented vs. Reality

MISH'S
Global Economic
Trend Analysis

Today, under guise of helping "responsible homeowners" president Obama published details of Plan to Help Homeowners and Heal the Housing Market

Key Aspects of the President’s Plan as Presented

• Broad Based Refinancing to Help Responsible Borrowers Save an Average of $3,000 per Year: The President’s plan will provide borrowers who are current on their payments with an opportunity to refinance and take advantage of historically low interest rates, cutting through the red tape that prevents these borrowers from saving hundreds of dollars a month and thousands of dollars a year. This plan, which is paid for by a financial fee so that it does not add a dime to the deficit, will:
• Provide access to refinancing for all non-GSE borrowers who are current on their payments and meet a set of simple criteria.
• Streamline the refinancing process for all GSE borrowers who are current on their loans.
• Give borrowers the chance to rebuild equity through refinancing.
• Homeowner Bill of Rights: The President is putting forward a single set of standards to make sure borrowers and lenders play by the same rules
• Moving the Market to Provide a Full Year of Forbearance for Borrowers Looking for Work: Following the Administration’s lead, major banks and the GSEs are now providing up to 12 months of forbearance to unemployed borrowers.

 

Doug Casey on the Coming War with Iran

(Interviewed by Louis James, Editor, International Speculator)
L: Doug-Sama, I've heard you say you think the US is setting Iran up to be the next fall guy in the wag-the-dog show – do you think it could really come to open warfare?
Doug: Yes, I do. It could just be saber rattling during an election year, but Western powers have been provoking Iran for years now – two decades, really. I just saw another report proclaiming that Iran is likely to attack the US, which is about as absurd as the allegations Bush made about Iraq bombing the US, when he fomented that invasion. It's starting to look rather serious at this point, so I do think the odds favor actual fighting in the not-too-distant future.
L: Could they really be so stupid?
Doug: You know the answer to that one. We're dealing with criminal personalities on both sides, and criminals are basically very stupid – meaning they have an unwitting tendency to self-destruction. One thing to remember is that most of those in power in the West still believe the old economic fallacy that war is good for the economy.
L: The old broken-window fallacy. Paraphrasing Arlo Guthrie, it's hard to believe anyone could get away with making a mistake that dumb for that long. Our friends at IHS put together a great, brief video debunking the fallacy.
Doug: People like those in power still suffer the delusion that it was World War II that ended the Great Depression for the US. Actually, it was only after the end of the war that the depression ended, in 1946. In his book World Economic Development: 1979 and Beyond, Herman Kahn documented long-term growth throughout the 20^th century. Between 1914 to 1946 – a very tough time, with WW I, the Great Depression, and WW II – the world economy still grew at something like 1.8%. I believe real growth would have been several times as great, were it not for the state and its products. But people still believe that spending money on things that explode and kill and destroy is somehow good for the economy.
L: I suppose they think it's okay if it creates jobs here and destroys lives and livelihoods "over there." But aside from the fact that it's not safe to assume today's enemies are not capable of bringing the battle onto US soil, it still ignores the fact that you're spending money on stuff that gets destroyed – like broken windows – and that impoverishes us all. Worse, the cost is not just economic.
Doug: That's right. This coming war with Iran has the potential to turn into something resembling WW III, with enormous consequences.
Now, it's hard to speak with any certainty on such matters, because most of what we have to go on are press reports. Governments keep most really critical facts on their doings to themselves, and what you read in the press is as likely as not just a warmed-over government press release – in other words, propaganda. Meaningless, if not actively deceptive. It is correctly said that in war, truth is the first casualty.

47 Signs That China Is Absolutely Destroying America On The Global Economic Stage

Have you ever watched a football game or a basketball game where one team dominates the other team so badly that calling it a "blowout" would be a huge understatement?  Well, that is what China is doing to the United States.  China is absolutely destroying America on the global economic stage.  Once upon a time, the Chinese economy was a joke and the U.S. economy was the most powerful the world had ever seen.  But over the past couple of decades the U.S. economy has decayed and declined while the Chinese economy has skyrocketed.  Today, China makes more steel, more automobiles, more beer, more cotton, more coal and more solar panels than we do.  China has the fastest train in the world, the fastest computer in the world and they export twice as much high-tech equipment as we do.  In 2011, our trade deficit with China was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world, and China has now accumulated more than 3 trillion dollars in foreign currency reserves.  Every single day, we lose more jobs, more businesses and more of our national wealth to China.  In technical economic terms, China has "taken us out behind the woodshed" and has beaten the living daylights out of us.  Unfortunately, most Americans are so addicted to entertainment that they don't even realize what is happening.
If you do not believe that China is wiping the floor with America in front of the rest of the world, just keep reading.  The following are 47 signs that China is absolutely destroying America on the global economic stage....
#1 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Today, China's high-tech exports are more than twice the size of U.S. high-tech exports.
#2 America has lost more than a quarter of all of its high-tech manufacturing jobs over the past ten years.
#3 The Chinese economy has grown 7 times faster than the U.S. economy has over the past decade.

Keiser Report: Chutzpah Economics (E244)

In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss chutzpah economics, unrequited transfers and shakedowns. In the second half of the show, Max talks to economist, Saifedean Ammous, about the standoff between Egypt and the IMF debt pushers as well as the war against the online free market by Hollywood middlemen.

SPECIAL REPORT: $500 SILVER & Hyperinflation

"A SGTreport SPECIAL REPORT featuring Chris Duane from http://dont-tread-on.me/ & David Morgan from http://www.silver-investor.com/. Chris and I explore the 1/10th ounce silver payment for a hard day's labor which was the historical norm for centuries. And how that fractional payment will actually hold true in the future for millions of Americans once silver reaches its real all-time inflation adjusted high of $500 per ounce. David Morgan also joins us to explore the very real possibility of hyperinflation in the United States by the year 2014. So buckle up, this is a good one."

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