Thursday, February 28, 2013

One clear message from the mess that is italian politics

Beppe Grillo’s protest movement was the winner in Italy’s election that signals a failure of an entire political class.
mario calabresi
TURIN
During these elections, all that’s wrong with Italian politics in the last 20 years has finally caught up to us. The government’s relationship -- and lack of communication -- with the Italian people has led to an unprecedented height of pure electoral protest.

What’s left, after Monday night’s results, is a Parliament in which no alliance is capable of forming a majority necessary to rule.


Marc Faber Tells CNBC: 'U.S. Will Never Balance Its Budget'














'Expecting the U.S. to balance its budget is like expecting my Rottweilers to hoard sausages.'
'Markets will punish central banks for printing.'

Sound Money Campaign: “Economists Love To Hate Gold



The Sound Money Campaign website (an excellent initiative by the way) just released an interview with Jay Taylor. It is a “must listen” interview as several interesting insights are revealed. Triggered by the seeming propaganda against  the metals in the past two weeks, Jay Taylor shares his take on the metals, our money and gold miners.
I think there’s no question there is a huge dislike against gold among the establishment because gold competes with paper money. The current fiat currency system is a way of those who control that system to wrestle away from those who create something (miners, manufacturers, inventors, farmers … people who actually do something).
Interestingly I had Mark Skousen on my own radio show, and he was talking about a group of economists (The American Economic Association). They were asked whether we should return to a gold standard. There was a 100% against doing so. They were all divided on how much debt matters, whether the minimum wage is a problem, … There is an unanimous opinion against gold on the part of the economic establishment. Of course those people have been trained through our establishment and have their degrees from prestigious institutions.
- See more at: http://investmentwatchblog.com/sound-money-campaign-economists-love-to-hate-gold/#sthash.5lw4YKTi.dpuf

The Italian Perfect Storm

maurizio molinari
The victory of the populist Beppe Grillo, the comeback of Silvio Berlusconi and the weak performance of the center-left led by Pierluigi Bersani are the pillars of an election result that brings Italy to the edge of ungovernability.

Deceived by surveys unable to take the pulse of the electorate, misled by wrong exit polls and motivated by a strong aversion to the establishment, Italians went to the polls with the intention of revolutionizing of Parliament, defeating financial austerity and sending a strong message of dissent to the European Union. And in all of this they succeeded. The reason is the aggressiveness with which the former comedian Beppe Grillo has courted popular dissatisfaction over Italy’s widespread corruption and poverty, combined with the inability of the center-right and center-left to match his skills in mass communications. His mastery of new media proved better than Bersani or even Berlusconi’s control of old media. Then there is of course Mario Monti, the former premier protagonist of reforms of unquestionable value who in this election has proved unable to reach beyond the modest threshold of 10 percent.

The result is a perfect political storm that generates an unprecedented situation in the history of the Italian Republic. The House goes to the center-left thanks to a tiny difference of 0.4 percent of the votes while in the Senate there are no majorities, particularly now given that Grillo’s “Five Stars Movement” excludes “mess-ups” with anyone. Thus, we are facing three possible scenarios: a government of broad agreement between Bersani and Berlusconi, a minority government led by Bersani or a quick return to the polls. Not surprisingly, Grillo is convinced that in any repeat election his party will only gain in strength. For Giorgio Napolitano, Italy’s head of state, the choice of whom to assign the task of forming a government promises to be one of the most difficult.

If the Eurozone and the United States are pressing Rome to quickly form a government stable enough to continue economic reforms and stabilize the Eurozone, Grillo is playing a completely different game. He aims to “break down,” “surround” and “bring down” a political system that he despises enough to describe as a “dead cat.” This is the promise from which the Third Republic could be born. The First arose in 1946 from the ruins of Fascism and was inspired by the Resistance, the Second was born in 1992 in the wake of the scandals of Tangentopoli and the Third is coming to light as a result of the popular revolt against poverty and corruption in the age of austerity.

The Debasing of Our Currency is Relentless – It’s a Giant Con Game

TheDailySheeple.com
February 27 2013
Investment analyst Jay Taylor joins the Sound Money Campaign to discuss the US dollar and ways to preserve wealth as the Federal Reserve relentlessly debases our nation’s currency.
…the debasing of currency is relentless.
The Federal Reserve is expanding its balance sheets, it’s creating money out of nothing, it’s devaluing the savings of individuals through the debasement of the currency and through zero interest policies.
They’re just trying to keep people off balance so they don’t bet in one direction in favor of inflation hedges.
They want to keep people believing [inflation] is not going to be a problem.
They need to do that in order to keep people believing in the dollar, which they create out of nothing.
So, it’s a giant con game.
In the end, Pinocchio’s nose will be exposed and [free] markets win out.
Watch as Mr. Taylor explains his thoughts on markets going forward, why it’s important to hold gold and silver as a backstop for out of control inflation, the differences between gold and silver, and several ways of investing to help you stay out of the jurisdiction of the US government:
Contributed by The Daily Sheeple of www.TheDailySheeple.com.
This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.TheDailySheeple.com.

Ron Paul Obamacare is a Disaster

Ron Paul Obamacare is a Disaster

Central Banks Buy The Most Gold Since 1964


The Bernank has been busy.
"Central banks' move from net sellers of gold, to net buyers that we have seen in recent years, has continued apace.  The official central bank purchases across the world are now at their highest level for almost half a century."
---
Central Banks Last Year Bought The Most Gold Since 1964
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- The world's central banks last year bought 534.6 tons of gold in 2012, the most since 1964, as global gold demand hit a record value level, the World Gold Council said Thursday in a quarterly report.  Purchases by central banks for the full year rose 17% compared with 2011, while fourth-quarter purchases of 145 tons marked a 29% rise from the same period a year earlier.
"Central banks' move from net sellers of gold to net buyers that we have seen in recent years has continued apace," with official sector purchases across the world now at their highest level for almost half a century, said Marcus Grubb, managing director for investment at the World Gold Council.  In value terms, total gold demand in 2012 was $236.4 billion, an all-time high, the council said.
Read the full press release from the World Gold Council...
---
World Gold Council 2012 Report:




Gold demand hits record value level.
$236 billion, and change.
Report was released yesterday.  Director Marcus Grubb discusses the findings for Q4 and fulll year 2012.  In value terms, global gold demand in 2012 was $236.4 billionn -- an all-time high.  Gold demand in value terms for the final quarter of the year was 6% higher year-on-year at $66.2 billion, marking the highest ever Q4 total.
Read the full press release from the World Gold Council...


Related stories:
Revealed: Why Gordon Brown sold Britain's gold at less than $300 per ounce
Excerpt
One globally significant US bank in particular is understood to have been heavily short on two tonnes of gold, enough to call into question its solvency if redemption occurred at the prevailing price.
Goldman Sachs, which is not understood to have been significantly short on gold itself, is rumoured to have approached the Treasury to explain the situation through its then head of commodities Gavyn Davies, later chairman of the BBC and married to Sue Nye who ran Brown’s private office.
Faced with the prospect of a global collapse in the banking system, the Chancellor took the decision to bail out the banks by dumping Britain’s gold, forcing the price down and allowing the banks to buy back gold at a profit, thus meeting their borrowing obligations.

Russia Bought More Gold Than China - When Prices Were Much Lower
Not only has Vladimir Putin made Russia the world’s largest oil producer, he’s also made it the biggest gold buyer.  His central bank has added 570 metric tons of the metal in the past decade, a quarter more than runner-up China, according to IMF data compiled by Bloomberg.  The added gold is also almost triple the weight of the Statue of Liberty.
"The more gold a country has, the more sovereignty it will have if there’s a cataclysm with the dollar, the euro, the pound or any other reserve currency," Evgeny Fedorov, a lawmaker for Putin’s United Russia party.


Rick Santelli's 'Federal Reserve Rain Dance'



'I think they're crazy.  That's my stance on the Fed.'
Rick Santelli on the future of QE.
Liesman says markets are beginning to doubt the Fed's resolve to continue QEternity.
---

Good clip from yesterday:
DEBT BATTLE ROYALE: Santelli Vs. Dean Baker: 'We're The NEXT Greece!'

The Economy Isn't Recovering But It's Getting Sicker

The Economy Isn't Recovering But It's Getting Sicker

Rocket Mass Heater Build

Stanley Druckenmiller & James Rickards & Tyler Durden: Interest On The Debt Is Going To Kill Us. There’s No Way Fed Will Stop Easing! One Way Or Another, Owning Physical Gold Is The Safest And Most Effective Way of Insuring Against Hyperinflation.



Hedge fund legend Stanley Druckenmiller on exploding debt interest.
Two short highlight clips from Druckenmiller’s rare interview last week on CNBC
WSJ Editorial By Druckenmiller…
**
Here’s a chart of interest paid on the U.S. national debt.
Interestingly, we have already paid $150 billion for fiscal 2013.
….

Central Banks Cannot Create Wealth, Only Liquidity

However, central banks can only create liquidity, not wealth. If printing money were equivalent to creating wealth, then mankind would not have to get up early on Monday morning. Only a solvent central bank can halt hyperinflation. The longer governments run large deficits, the longer central banks continue to monetize them, and the longer their balance sheets grow, the higher the potential for enormous losses and thus hyperinflation.
Necessary preconditions for hyperinflation are a quasi-bankrupt government whose debt is monetized by a central bank with insufficient assets. One way or another, owning physical gold is the safest and most effective way of insuring against hyperinflation.

James Rickards – No Way Fed Will Stop Easing

- See more at: http://investmentwatchblog.com/stanley-druckenmiller-james-rickards-tyler-durden-interest-on-the-debt-is-going-to-kill-us-theres-no-way-fed-will-stop-easing-one-way-or-another-owning-physical-gold-is-the-safest-and-most-e/#sthash.5yQYq9v5.dpuf

Debt charity sees calls from people with payday loan problems double in a year - and some callers have taken 80 loans

The amount of people seeking advice about payday loans has almost doubled in a year, according to new figures from a debt charity.
The National Debtline Service said that it took over 20,000 calls from people looking for help with pay day loan debts last year – up 94 per cent from 10,301 in 2010.
It said it now receives 100 calls everyday from people with payday loan debts and that some callers had taken out ‘as many as 80 such loans’. It is common for those with payday debts to take new loans in order to clear existing ones, creating a cycle of borrowing that is hard to escape. 
Money troubles: Some callers to the National Debtline Service have up to 80 payday loans - the charity has seen the number of calls double in the space of a year.
Money troubles: Some callers to the National Debtline Service have up to 80 payday loans - the charity has seen the number of calls double in the space of a year.
The volume of consumers with money worries continues to rise and the charity said that one in every seven calls they received in January were about payday loans.
Payday loans are designed to be a short term solution to a lack of cash until the next pay cheque – but they often come at extraordinary cost of more than 4000 per cent APR.
National Debtline said the number of calls about payday loans has risen by 4,200 per cent since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007.
 

Joanna Elson, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, said: ‘Payday loans have come from nowhere to be one of the most common debt problems people face. In 2007 as the financial crisis began National Debtline took just 465 calls for help with payday loans, but last year that figure had grown to 20,013.
'National Debtline advisers help around 100 people every day to deal with payday loan debts, some callers have taken out as many as 80 such loans. Borrowing on this scale can have serious ramifications if not dealt with properly, and advice services like National Debtline risk becoming over burdened by the proliferation of payday loans.’
Adding up: If debt worries get you down then you must seek advice. The Money Advice Trust is calling on the OFT to shut down lenders using bad practices.
Adding up: If debt worries get you down then you must seek advice. The Money Advice Trust is calling on the OFT to shut down lenders using bad practices.
National Debtline is part of debt charity Money Advice Trust. It is calling on the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to suspend consumer credit licences where it identifies persistent bad practice.
Earlier this month the OFT was given the power to immediately stop companies from trading to protect consumer if it believes they are using practices that are deceitful, oppressive or unfair.
These include firms pushing inflated fees and charges, continuing to take money when debts have been repaid, harassment over repayment of debts and chasing people for loans when the individual didn’t apply for a loan in the first place.
Earlier this month Citizens Advice sent a complaint to the OFT about four pay day lenders, including two ‘household names’, which it believes have been causing 'significant distress' to customers.
The CAB said it could not name the firms involved as it said it may damage the investigation and the OFT has yet to respond publically to the complaint.
In November the OFT wrote to 240 payday lenders to warn them of on-going bad practices in the sector as part of its review.
Russell Hamblin Boone, Chief Executive of the Consumer Finance Association, which represents a number of payday lenders, said: 'The short term lending industry has seen exponential growth in recent years, so an increase in calls does not mean that problems relating to payday are getting worse.
'Our members have been actively referring customers to them as a part of our commitment to supporting those who find themselves in financial difficulty. As a matter of course our members will freeze interest and charges, negotiate repayment plans and refer people to third party advice.
'As responsible lenders we fully support National Debtline’s call to rid the industry of the poor practice and consumer detriment highlighted in their report.'
  • Are you experiencing problems with debt? Post any questions you have on our advice forum and they will be answered by an expert.


Inflation, Taxes and More Coming Soon


Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.— Chairman Mao Zedong (The Little Red Book, 1964)

Ed Bugos
Activist Post

I don’t think anyone can truly understand the idea of freedom without understanding why a shrinking group of Americans cherish their 2nd amendment rights so passionately. Obama says that the voices of dead children compel change, by which he means to disarm Americans at a faster pace.

He talks of change, but it is more like "Hope and Chains". He reeks of the status quo. True change would involve a free market (libertarian) solution to the problem of school shootings and violence – since they aren’t being employed there. You may not agree. But you can’t disagree that they would represent true change.

Certainly there were no such incidents in the left’s mythological portrayals of the wild, wild, west!

You know our view. Freedom is an unknown ideal altogether. But even if we were to concede that a libertarian solution was going backwards, who could dispute the better numbers from back then?

But those arguments – and there have been many good ones made that freedom haters on the left have never even heard – weren’t given a single thought in his haste to get back at the Republicans for all the trouble they keep causing him. Obama is right that society has failed those dead children of whom he speaks. But isn’t this system administered and run by his bureaucratic cohorts? Isn’t that same old centrally planned one-size-fits-all education part of the problem? Isn’t there anything to the idea that gun free zones invite armed crime, or that guns protect people too (thus also lessening the need for state police)? What about the idea that popular pharmaceutical drugs play a role in the violence? Or what about the FACT that gun control simply puts all the guns in the bad guys’ hands. Not interested! He would much rather exploit the opportunity for more political capital from his own side. I’m just calling it like I see it. Obama is a politician and he’s exploiting those dead children for his own political gain.

If that were not true there would be a more serious two-sided debate on the issue before recommending action that will not even be able to cure the symptoms. Not that I am alone claiming to understand the cause of these violent incidents. However, I am pretty sure the mere existence of guns isn’t it.

Notwithstanding, they’ll probably push more regulations through like they pushed through healthcare reform.

It’s symbolic as another signpost on the road to totalitarianism. As Ayn Rand said, "The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time."

The irony is that the same people who would deny it are blind to their own contribution.

But what is important to me, as a gold market analyst, is the impact of all this on the economy. [Editor's Note: Ed's gold market analysis and advice is available to premium subscribers of TDV's Weekly Dispatch. Click here to learn more.]

Any movement in the direction of bigger government puts greater control over the means of production in the hands of the state’s planning bodies, which means less competition, less consumer sovereignty, and hence less supply, less quality and higher prices. This in turn ultimately means less productivity.

But in a world where politicians are constantly trying to buy votes with the illusion that they alone are the source of prosperity (while the market is bad) it means more inflation, and more taxes.

It’s really just simple economics.

If Government Really Were Shut Down It Would Be America’s New Birthday

So whereas the US administration’s position on gun control is a mere signpost on a section of the highway where there are no turnoffs, its position on the public debt (and spending of course) is far more revealing of the substance in my point. It seems pretty clear that Obama’s agenda will result in the further expansion of government, not only in the present but also in the future – by obligating future generations to pay for today’s excesses. Describing the Republican opposition to raising the debt ceiling and insisting on some spending cuts, Obama said they were “holding a gun at the head of the American people.” I mean, and they aren’t even talking about the kind of spending cuts that I would recommend. What would he say to that? Really, it is the irony in his words that compels change!

For he is currently the nominal head of the largest criminal organization in the world, an organization that holds a gun to Americans’ heads each and every day, and he accuses the Republicans of holding a gun to Americans heads for wanting to reduce that burden!?! Surreal.

So the sheep are brainwashed. They think their taxes, taken from them involuntarily, actually go towards the public good because the lesser evil who they voted in is a benevolent philosopher king.

Meanwhile, the money is blown on pork barrel subsidies to a handful of preferred cartels, bureaucrats, labor unions, war pigs, and other organizations that couldn’t stand without the support of government.

The mass of sheeple thinks the government is protecting them while it is waging a war on the little guy.

If we truthfully lived in a free market system as the liberals claim, there is no way that the head of state would even dare to say that threatening to shut down government is like holding a gun to Americans’ heads. In my mind then it is just more evidence of how far from a free market system we’ve strayed.

It would do Obama followers well to listen to Mao’s words. They contain the obvious – at least to our group – but they also happen to point out the less obvious: that socialists don’t want to accept that the coercion is never justified. The end never justifies the means. Isn’t the means, after all, most of the journey? If government were ever to shut down, history should record it as America’s new birthday.

Ed Bugos, the Dollar Vigilante’s Senior Analyst, has a strong background in Austrian economics, is one of the world's most sought after and respected mining analysts. Based out of the global epicenter for gold mining exploration and financing, Vancouver, Canada, he has been writing publicly since the late ‘90s and is a well known critic of government interventions, central banking and the Federal Reserve since 2000, starting as the original contributing editor for Safehaven.com. Ed founded goldenbar.com in 2001, a website publishing his gold & currency digest portending the collapse of the strong dollar policy and the rise of the secular bull market in gold and commodities. He was one of the first to make the call for $2,000 gold (he now is calling for $5,000-$10,000 gold), back when it was still struggling with $300 per ounce and it was a sin to own it.
Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.— Chairman Mao Zedong (The Little Red Book, 1964)

Ed Bugos
Activist Post

I don’t think anyone can truly understand the idea of freedom without understanding why a shrinking group of Americans cherish their 2nd amendment rights so passionately. Obama says that the voices of dead children compel change, by which he means to disarm Americans at a faster pace.

He talks of change, but it is more like "Hope and Chains". He reeks of the status quo. True change would involve a free market (libertarian) solution to the problem of school shootings and violence – since they aren’t being employed there. You may not agree. But you can’t disagree that they would represent true change.

Certainly there were no such incidents in the left’s mythological portrayals of the wild, wild, west!

You know our view. Freedom is an unknown ideal altogether. But even if we were to concede that a libertarian solution was going backwards, who could dispute the better numbers from back then?

But those arguments – and there have been many good ones made that freedom haters on the left have never even heard – weren’t given a single thought in his haste to get back at the Republicans for all the trouble they keep causing him. Obama is right that society has failed those dead children of whom he speaks. But isn’t this system administered and run by his bureaucratic cohorts? Isn’t that same old centrally planned one-size-fits-all education part of the problem? Isn’t there anything to the idea that gun free zones invite armed crime, or that guns protect people too (thus also lessening the need for state police)? What about the idea that popular pharmaceutical drugs play a role in the violence? Or what about the FACT that gun control simply puts all the guns in the bad guys’ hands. Not interested! He would much rather exploit the opportunity for more political capital from his own side. I’m just calling it like I see it. Obama is a politician and he’s exploiting those dead children for his own political gain.


If that were not true there would be a more serious two-sided debate on the issue before recommending action that will not even be able to cure the symptoms. Not that I am alone claiming to understand the cause of these violent incidents. However, I am pretty sure the mere existence of guns isn’t it.

Notwithstanding, they’ll probably push more regulations through like they pushed through healthcare reform.

It’s symbolic as another signpost on the road to totalitarianism. As Ayn Rand said, "The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time."

The irony is that the same people who would deny it are blind to their own contribution.

But what is important to me, as a gold market analyst, is the impact of all this on the economy. [Editor's Note: Ed's gold market analysis and advice is available to premium subscribers of TDV's Weekly Dispatch. Click here to learn more.]

Any movement in the direction of bigger government puts greater control over the means of production in the hands of the state’s planning bodies, which means less competition, less consumer sovereignty, and hence less supply, less quality and higher prices. This in turn ultimately means less productivity.

But in a world where politicians are constantly trying to buy votes with the illusion that they alone are the source of prosperity (while the market is bad) it means more inflation, and more taxes.

It’s really just simple economics.

If Government Really Were Shut Down It Would Be America’s New Birthday

So whereas the US administration’s position on gun control is a mere signpost on a section of the highway where there are no turnoffs, its position on the public debt (and spending of course) is far more revealing of the substance in my point. It seems pretty clear that Obama’s agenda will result in the further expansion of government, not only in the present but also in the future – by obligating future generations to pay for today’s excesses. Describing the Republican opposition to raising the debt ceiling and insisting on some spending cuts, Obama said they were “holding a gun at the head of the American people.” I mean, and they aren’t even talking about the kind of spending cuts that I would recommend. What would he say to that? Really, it is the irony in his words that compels change!

For he is currently the nominal head of the largest criminal organization in the world, an organization that holds a gun to Americans’ heads each and every day, and he accuses the Republicans of holding a gun to Americans heads for wanting to reduce that burden!?! Surreal.

So the sheep are brainwashed. They think their taxes, taken from them involuntarily, actually go towards the public good because the lesser evil who they voted in is a benevolent philosopher king.

Meanwhile, the money is blown on pork barrel subsidies to a handful of preferred cartels, bureaucrats, labor unions, war pigs, and other organizations that couldn’t stand without the support of government.

The mass of sheeple thinks the government is protecting them while it is waging a war on the little guy.


If we truthfully lived in a free market system as the liberals claim, there is no way that the head of state would even dare to say that threatening to shut down government is like holding a gun to Americans’ heads. In my mind then it is just more evidence of how far from a free market system we’ve strayed.

It would do Obama followers well to listen to Mao’s words. They contain the obvious – at least to our group – but they also happen to point out the less obvious: that socialists don’t want to accept that the coercion is never justified. The end never justifies the means. Isn’t the means, after all, most of the journey? If government were ever to shut down, history should record it as America’s new birthday.

Ed Bugos, the Dollar Vigilante’s Senior Analyst, has a strong background in Austrian economics, is one of the world's most sought after and respected mining analysts. Based out of the global epicenter for gold mining exploration and financing, Vancouver, Canada, he has been writing publicly since the late ‘90s and is a well known critic of government interventions, central banking and the Federal Reserve since 2000, starting as the original contributing editor for Safehaven.com. Ed founded goldenbar.com in 2001, a website publishing his gold & currency digest portending the collapse of the strong dollar policy and the rise of the secular bull market in gold and commodities. He was one of the first to make the call for $2,000 gold (he now is calling for $5,000-$10,000 gold), back when it was still struggling with $300 per ounce and it was a sin to own it. - See more at: http://www.activistpost.com/2013/02/inflation-taxes-and-more-coming-soon.html#sthash.4Wz2YRaS.dpuf

British Gas faces the wrath of millions as it reveals 11% surge in profits just months after hiking customers' bills by £80

British Gas is today facing the wrath of millions as it revealed a massive surge in profits just three months after hiking customers’ bills by a further £80.
Profits for 2012 soared by 11 per cent on the previous year to £606million.
It is also expected to warn of another punishing energy price hike for its 12million customers as early as next winter.
How it all adds up: British Gas has broken down the average gas and electricity bill into the individual costs (Source: British Gas)
How it all adds up: British Gas has broken down the average gas and electricity bill into the individual costs (Source: British Gas)

Meanwhile the bosses of British Gas’s owner Centrica will collect a shares bonanza predicted to top £10million.
The bumper profits come during a winter in which seven in ten households have gone without heating at some point to keep costs down, according to uSwitch.com.
 

Over a third of people told the comparison service that cutting back on energy is affecting their quality of life or health.
According to Centrica¿s accounts, its chief executive Sam Laidlaw will gain from the shares bonanza
Big pay day: According to Centrica's accounts, its chief executive Sam Laidlaw will gain a huge sum after the group's bumper profits
Centrica reported an even higher profits rise, with a 15 per cent gain to roughly £2.8billion.
Company chiefs will be given millions of shares under a long-term bonus scheme set up three years ago, which is linked to the firm’s performance.
Bosses will benefit from the fact that they will not receive the shares until after the end of the current tax year.
As a result, they will cash in on Chancellor George Osborne’s cut in the top rate of tax from 50 per cent to 45 per cent.
The UK’s biggest energy supplier put up tariffs by six per cent in the teeth of the winter chill, pushing up bills by £80 to an average £1,350 a year.
Richard Lloyd, executive director at consumer champion, Which?, said: ‘People are bound to question whether they’re paying a fair price for energy when they see big profits announcements.
'Centrica’s analysis won’t change that view as record-high bills land on millions of doormats.'
Another price increase: British Gas is today expected to warn of another punishing energy price hike despite a massive surge in profits

THIS IS MONEY TIPS: HOW TO CUT YOUR ENERGY BILLS

The winter price hikes by the 'Big Six' energy firms provide an opportunity to take control of your bills and save, explains Simon Lambert.
An online comparison is the best way to do this and you can find the cheapest energy supplier for you by using our fuel bills switching service, powered by Energy Helpline.
The biggest savings of about £300 a year can be achieved by those who have never switched. Most others can also save on bills.
Simply enter your postcode into the box below and allow it to do the work for you.
Five tricks to remember
1. Take regular meter readings rather than relying on an estimate. This keeps you as close as possible to an accurate bill
2. Move to online bills. This saves up to 10%.
3. Monthly direct debit payments could save you 5-10%
4. Dual fuel (gas and electricity from the same supplier) is usually but not always the cheapest option. Compare both this and separate gas and electricity.
5. Knowing how much you pay now or how much energy you use delivers the best comparison. Get your most recent bill and use the figures.
Centrica said the sharp profit increase at British Gas residential came after last year's colder-than-normal weather saw gas use leap 12 per cent, despite a fall in customer accounts.
It said the number of residential customers dropped one per cent in the year to 15.7million, compared to 15.9million in 2011.
British Gas published a breakdown of the average customer bill, in an attempt to diffuse the furore over price hikes.
It said of the average customer bill of £1,188 a year, the wholesale energy cost made accounted for £568, £283 went to delivery to the home, environmental and social policies added £112 and tax made up £72. Operating costs totalled £104, leaving it with £49 in profit per household.
Directors from the company appeared on television this morning to defend the results.
'I completely understand our profits announced today will create a reaction with customers,' managing director of services and commercial at Centrica Chris Jansen told Daybreak.
'I think it’s important to remember that in 2011 it was a very, very mild winter ... so the country used a lot less gas, and actually our profits in 2011 were 20 per cent down on 2010.'
Asked whether customers would face further price increases, Mr Jansen replied: 'It’s impossible for me to say that, that’s like looking at a crystal ball.
 
'The general trend for energy prices are prices are increasing. All we say to customers is let’s do what we can to control energy bills.'Prices might be going up but bills don’t need to if we control our energy use.'
Ian Peters, managing director of residential energy for British Gas, told the BBC: 'If I look into the future we have no plans to put prices up even higher, the gas prices are relatively calm.'
Asked on BBC Breakfast how long into the future - and if the firm was committing to not putting prices up - he said: 'I can’t do that because the gas market is volatile.
'But right now, as I say, it is very early in the year, we work in a very competitive market and it is not in our interest or our customers’ to put prices up. So we will do everything we can not to do that.
'What I want to say is that we will move heaven and earth to keep our customers’ bills down. We have the lowest bills in the industry.'
Alastair Buchanan, head of energy regulator Ofgem, has warned of an energy crisis as Britain becomes more reliant on expensive imported gas.
He warned last week that the National Grid could struggle to meet demand between 2015 and 2020 after the planned closure of coal and oil-fired power stations next month to meet environmental targets. As a result customers could have to pay, he said.
Price rises will also go to subsidies for wind farms, nuclear power stations and free insulation for the vulnerable.
According to Centrica’s accounts, its chief executive Sam Laidlaw, finance chief Nick Luff, head of energy Mark Hanafin and the head of its US arm, Chris Weston, will gain from the shares bonanza.
Another beneficiary is the departing managing director of British Gas, Phil Bentley. His total departure package could be worth £10million. His departure was confirmed today.
Company sources said the shares are part of a long-term incentive, not a windfall, while the date of the hand-over was decided long before the 50 per cent tax rate was scrapped.
Centrica has tried to pre-empt a furore over pay with a study on its positive impact.
Mr Laidlaw said: ‘At a time of uncertain economic prospects, our activities across the UK are even more important to secure employment, put the supply chain to work and contribute our fair share of tax.’
The company employs some 33,000 people in the country, while its tax bill is expected to be around £1.1billion in 2012. Unlike many rivals, it is wholly British and pays its tax here.

The Ridiculous Sequester and Debt Ceiling Fear Propaganda | XRepublic

The Ridiculous Sequester and Debt Ceiling Fear Propaganda | XRepublic

The Walking Dead – Zombie Banks and Wall Street ‘Biters’

The Walking Dead – Zombie Banks and Wall Street ‘Biters’ post image
The Zombie Banks are out there among us right now lurking around for their next victim.  Selling a toxic asset to an unsuspecting local government or union pension fund.  Demanding Double Digit interest on credit line accounts from small businesses owners  who are struggling to stay profitable and keep employees on the payroll.  Hatching fresh schemes daily to deceive and steal money from anyone and everyone.
Although bankrupt and insolvent, like a real life horror movie they continue their global rampage and defy death via secret New York FED transfusions of money.   The FED rewards them with money in exchange for mostly worthless and overpriced junk paper which they themselves create. In this way Wall Street Bankers and 1% Corporations have been able to hoard trillions of money in offshore accounts since the 2008-09 crises when death came knocking on their door.
This was not done through TARP.  All the TARP talk was a distraction from what goes on behind the closed doors of the New York FED. They still intend to use those trillions to make a killing during each wave of major financial crisis that hits the world.  Crisis which have manifested as a direct result of their actions, political lobbying, and decisions.
These illicit trillions are mostly fiat electronic money created through fraud, inflation, counterfeiting, and grift by private banks, not by the government. The US Government is not running any money printing presses.  With the exception of coins, it must borrow or tax to get their hands on any money.  Nearly all US money is paper and electronic money.  It is all created by private banks or the Federal Reserve System.  There are 12 privately owned Federal Reserve Districts and a National Board of Governors, but well over half of the US money supply has been created solely through one Federal Reserve District, the New York FED.
The Financial Crises of 2008-2009 gave us new acronyms such as Too-Big-Too-Fail, Too-Big-To-Jail, and Too Small to Save. Most of the New York FED mega banks have already went belly up at least one or more times. moneyspiralThese same banks, and the Federal Reserve System which they control, are drowning this country and the entire world in order for them to stay afloat and maintain a global monopoly over money and credit creation.
According to free market principles JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs,  Citibank, and many other of their LIBOR comrades in Europe should have all been six feet under right now.  But they are the modern day walking dead.  Blood-sucking zombie banks run by egotistical deranged hypocritical lunatics that preach Capitalism but, in practice, actually adhere to communism and socialism.  Modern day Shylocks on steroids, with insatiable and usurious cravings for pounds of flesh from every human on the planet.
Today’s ‘Zombie Banks’ are a cartel with minions specializing in creation and sale of  “financial products” or “financial services”.  Products and services that are otherwise known as “bullshit scams” to ‘trick people’ and ‘steal’ their money.  A whole line of designer debt paper products that are marketed and sold as if they were ethically or morally on par with a physical product made in a factory.  Their world is a virtual casino where games are so rigged that they would be unable to get a gaming license even in the most corrupt corners of the world.
Failure is not an ‘Option’ sold on Wall Street
The Banking Cartel can only exist by forcing taxpayers and the public to subsidize their apocalyptic financial losses.  For them there is no fair or ‘free market’ , no competition, no standards of accountability, and no corporate death by the rules of capitalism which they hypocritically extoll.  One day they create trillions for secret low/no interest bailouts to unload their toxic paper on the government.  The next day they rail against government and regulation, all while denying the same kind of low/no interest loans to everyday people, businesses, homeowners, and smaller banks who are not part of the cartel.
zombieNYFED
Without a radical political or social change of behavior by the public, there will be no bottom to the downward financial spiral they are going to experience.  The Zombie Bank contagion will spread until it has infected every healthy economic entity in the world.  Nouriel Roubini recently said: 
Over time, you get zombie banking, zombie corporates, zombie households, which is damaging in the long term
If you don’t already know how to protect against zombies, check out the popular TV show on A&E called “The Walking Dead”.  Zombies, or ‘biters’, will kill and multiply unless they are prevented from eating the healthy.  That means you, your family, your business, your community, and government.  Here is a video about protecting yourself from zombies.  For more ideas about self-defense from zombie attack, watch the movie “Zombieland”.




As of now, TBTF is still largely a freak of nature nurtured in the State of New York through the private corporation called the New York Federal Reserve.  This is not to be confused with the Federal Reserve system of the United States or the other 11 Federal Reserve Districts. Those 11 Districts are each separate corporations owned by relatively small local banks.  New York is a Zombie Bank State and the New York FED is the nest and womb where they are born, cuddled, grow, and feed like a parasite on a captive American host public .   The activities in New York are the principal cause of our nations financial woes, our government debt, and the outsourcing of our manufacturing and technology industries.   The Financial District of New York is a Grand Central Station for biters.   This has a lot to do with why all of the largest international corporations have their headquarters in lower Manhattan and do all their banking there.   ‘Biters’ tend to congregate and attack in packs.
zombiepack

The activities of international banks and large international corporations represent the 1% who are wiping out the American middle class and the small business people of America.   On the immediate horizon is the destruction of most everything in the United States that patriotic, free-market, conservative, gun-loving, small business owning Americans are adamant about protecting.   Zombie banks have brought this about and made it uncertain whether economic liberty and constitutional rights will be passed on to future generations.
This isn’t a liberal or conservative issue.  Just because you are conservative and Occupy Wall Street folks said there is a 1% doesn’t mean it is irrelevant or untrue.   Those who are old enough will recall that conservatives were the original opposition in American politics to international banks, globalization, and free trade for many decades.  It was only 20 or so years ago that Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan ran for President on popular conservative platforms opposing NAFTA, Globalization, and Free Trade.
The long term interests of most international corporations and banks are in conflict with the interests of most small and medium sized businesses in the US.  At some point it is going to become impossible for them to co-exist in the Republican Party.  The small and medium sized businesses will either die off, give up on the Republican party, or give the boot to the New York FED lovin’ Wall Street Republicans.
The privileged 1% corporations unfairly dodge taxes, regulations, environmental standards, and fair wage standards that their American business competitors must comply with.   Ironically these same super-corporations can get just about any kind of favor or bill passed by the US Government including war for financial gain.
Does anyone wonder why these super-corporations don’t use their combined influence with Congress to make less regulation and lower taxes?   Could they be using the powerful liberal lobbies who support higher taxes and increased regulations, but in their case solely to drive their American Based competition out of business?  Billionaire international investor George Soros should know the answer better than anyone.  He practically owns the progressive movement and the democratic Party too.
This is not said to grandstand for republicans and conservatives. It is to wake up the gullible blue state liberals to be more effective by being wiser.  To be who they say they are and stand for that they believe.   There will be much good cause for hope an change when progressives become more conscious of their biggest political blind-spot of all.
What if I told you that the Blue States, and their Public and Union Pensions, are also the biggest enabler’s of Wall Street Bankers, Too-Big-To-Fail, and the corrupt Federal Reserve System.   It is not the Conservatives or red states as you were led to believe.  Want the proof?  I have a red pill for you.
 A Red Pill for the Blue State Matrix of delusion
Ironically a closer inspection of circumstances will show that Too-Big-Too-Fail (TBTF) was born and bred in Big Blue progressive states.  The TBTF term was coined during the S&L crises of the 80′s to describe a bank in Illinois.  90% of the CalPer’s Pension fund is invested outside of the state California, much of it through Wall Street and internationally.  Why are big Blue State Union pensions investing everywhere but in their own state?  Maybe someone should have occupied the union pension fund manager’s office.
Without the big 3 Blue State union pensions and public money to enable them, the TBTF problem could not exist.   TBTF and the worst of Wall Street is wholly enabled by New York, Illinois, and California. So, it is also uniquely within the power of progressives in those three democratic majority states to deal a death blow to the zombie banks f0r the good of everyone.   But sadly the Zombie Bankers know the weakness of progressives very well and didn’t set up shop in their political strongholds by accident.
If Progressives and Liberal democrats represent such a fierce challenge to Wall Street Banks or International Corporations then why have the majority of them always been in the very blue state of New York?  To be in New York means they are subject to state regulation, state and county prosecution, even regulations by the city of New York, all of which is dominated by the liberal New York democratic majority.  New York is one of the most liberal democratic progressive states in the nation.  This fact has been true as far back as FDR and the days of the New Deal.   From that time to the present nearly all of the largest banks and financial institutions in the US were aware of those progressive liberal political majorities but still choose to stay and be headquartered in New York and to a lesser extent Illinois and California.  So who is Wall Street more afraid of ? Liberals or Conservatives?
Richard Fisher
Richard Fisher
If it is truly liberals, then why aren’t most Super-Corporations and Banks  headquartered in the Red States like Texas, or in Utah which is the reddest state in the US?  All the objective evidence suggests bankers who are up to no good prefer New York, because that is were they haven proven able to get away with it.  Do you really think they chose New York rather than Texas unconsciously?
Another good reason that a corrupt banker would avoid Red States is that they would have to be members of the local Red State FED Districts.  The state governments and those local FEDs would have independent legal power for oversight and regulation of all their activities.
Thomas Hoenig
Thomas Hoenig
Zombie Bankers have solidified control over the New York Political machinery, the judges, the media, etc.   They believe they are on safe ground there to get away with most anything. Time and experience has shown this to be true.   Deceitful financial racketeering is commonplace activity that goes on unchecked or is covered up when found.  But this is not so in other states or other FED districts.
There is no history of secret trillion dollar bailouts in Red State FED districts.  Red State FED leaders have been the most outspoken critics of bailouts and TBTF in the country.  One is Richard Fisher, the head of Dallas Federal Reserve.  Another is Thomas Hoenig, former President of the Kansas City FED.
On another level, Red States are exemplary of main street economies based on energy and agriculture.  Their banks are a reflection of this positive and beneficial economic activity. They are governed mostly by financial conservatives who pay close attention to what is happening with their state’s taxes and spending.  Living in any part of small Red State is like living in a small town.  In case you don’t know, lying, cheating, and stealing for a living doesn’t go over as easily in small town rural America.  Most people who live there still believe in an honest days work to earn an honest days pay.  How can a big city banker fit in there or adjust to that kind of pressure?  Fugetaboutit … They’ll stay in New York.
 Red State Solutions for Blue State Progressives
There is much evidence of success in “red state” banking and financial management.  There are also signs in red states of political will at high levels of leadership to fix the banking problems in the whole country.  It looks like solutions and leadership are going to have to come from there versus progressives.   However many progressives are still in motion to do something about Wall Street and Big banks. Some are pushing for state banking measures as a way to reform Too-Big-Too-Fail and invest locally.
The publicly owned bank solution is inherently risky and most likely to go belly up under big blue state management typified by Illinois, California, and New York.  Out of this concern, many conservatives oppose State Banks outright, without realizing how many Red States are effectively running state investment trusts now with great success.  For Example:
1. Bank of North Dakota-  Although BND is in a small conservative State (mostly republican) many progressive and liberal voices are championing the BND model for other states.
2. Reconstruction Finance Corporation A National Bank run by conservative Businessman Jesse Jones During the Great Depression.
3. Permanent Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund (PWMTF)
4.  Texas Economic Stabilization Fund (Rainy Day Fund) — This is funded like the Wyoming PWMTF.  It has grown to about 8.1 billion and Gov. Rick Perry has recently advocated using it as an investment trust for state water and transportation infrastructure projects.  Texas Democrats are urging a “spending” approach while republicans are urging a “lending” approach.
Solutions:  Starve the Zombies – Defend Yourself,  Your Community, and Your Country

The simplest reform that everyone should be able to agree on is to withdraw all public money from the zombie banks.  No legislation or Occupy protest is needed.  Stop feeding them!  Close your own bank account at a TBTF.  Remove the estimated $1 Trillon in union pension investment and deposits from them.   Stop putting hundreds of billions in state and local deposits in them too.
If they have the will and organization, progressives in the big Blue States can take care the zombie bank problem on behalf of the whole country.
Word to the wise, don’t make it too complicated for others to understand.  No occupy, no march, no protest. Just ask people to stop feeding them. Get your city, county, and state pension funds to divest from Wall Street and TBTF.  Bring the money home and invest it locally.  Win-Win.

"Let's Go" Music Video (YMCA Day Camp)


My name is Brandon Stanton, and I am a street photographer in New York City. Several months ago, I was approached by a representative of DKNY who asked to purchase 300 of my photos to hang in their store windows "around the world." They offered me $15,000. A friend in the industry told me that $50 per photo was not nearly enough to receive from a company with hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue. So I asked for more money. They said "no."

Yesterday, a fan sent me a photo from a DKNY store in Bangkok. The window was full of my photos. These photos were used without my knowledge, and without compensation.

In lieu of other recourse, I publicly asked DKNY to make a $100,000 donation to the Bedford-Stuyvesant YMCA in my name, so that deserving kids in my neighborhood could go to summer camp.
They ended up donating $25,000 in my name.

That was nice, but I'd like see if we can do better and raise the remaining $75,000 for the Bedford-Stuyvesant YMCA.

That would send a full 300 kids to summer camp for two weeks.  Can you imagine the impact that would have?  In some neighborhoods, the YMCA plays a critical role of stability and community.  My neighborhood is one of those neighborhoods.
$100,000 = 300 KIDS
LET'S SEND EVERYONE TO SUMMER CAMP!

US Recession Is On The Cards For Q1/Q2

$275 billion worth of economic drag is already in the pipeline for 2013 without even Obamaquester

President Obama has been so busy proactively blaming Republicans for the allegedly dire consequences of the March 1 sequester that he has failed to notice something far more damaging to the American economy. The tax increases already enacted on Jan. 1 by Congress and the president, coupled with the “tax” of higher fuel prices, altogether mean that about $275 billion worth of economic drag is already in the pipeline for 2013. 
These tax increases are far more economically and politically burdensome than the spending cuts mandated by the sequester. They get little attention now, but politicians won’t be able to ignore them by the summer.
As a quick refresher, the direct tax increases, amounting to $175 billion per year, were enacted by the Congress on Jan. 1 as a means to avert the “fiscal cliff” that would have mandated even larger tax increases. The legislation rescinded the $110 billion payroll tax reduction that was part of the 2010 stimulus package. Virtually all households pay the payroll tax to finance the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs. Then the president’s tax increases on “the rich” boosted income tax rates for households earning over $450,000 per year, thereby garnering another $65 billion per year in revenue. On top of this, if fuel prices prices stay at this sharply higher level, there will be another $100 billion in lost disposable income for households. The total, $275 billion, or nearly 2 percent of GDP, dwarfs the $44 billion in actual spending cuts mandated by the sequester….
The payroll tax hike wiped out a year’s worth of wage gains
average weekly earnings payroll

$50B lost disposable income secondary to higher gas prices

Gasoline reaches a fresh high for the year, but its climb isn’t over
The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline climbed to $3.782 on Tuesday, edging above the previous year-to-date high of $3.781 seen on Feb. 22, according to AAA.
Prices are up from Monday’s $3.777. They’ve gained almost 44 cents a gallon from a month ago, AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report shows.

3 Month Average Retail Price Chart:

gasbuddy.com
- See more at: http://investmentwatchblog.com/us-recession-is-on-the-cards-for-q1q2/#sthash.JywnLtIg.dpuf

$275 billion worth of economic drag is already in the pipeline for 2013 without even Obamaquester

President Obama has been so busy proactively blaming Republicans for the allegedly dire consequences of the March 1 sequester that he has failed to notice something far more damaging to the American economy. The tax increases already enacted on Jan. 1 by Congress and the president, coupled with the “tax” of higher fuel prices, altogether mean that about $275 billion worth of economic drag is already in the pipeline for 2013. 
These tax increases are far more economically and politically burdensome than the spending cuts mandated by the sequester. They get little attention now, but politicians won’t be able to ignore them by the summer.
As a quick refresher, the direct tax increases, amounting to $175 billion per year, were enacted by the Congress on Jan. 1 as a means to avert the “fiscal cliff” that would have mandated even larger tax increases. The legislation rescinded the $110 billion payroll tax reduction that was part of the 2010 stimulus package. Virtually all households pay the payroll tax to finance the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs. Then the president’s tax increases on “the rich” boosted income tax rates for households earning over $450,000 per year, thereby garnering another $65 billion per year in revenue. On top of this, if fuel prices prices stay at this sharply higher level, there will be another $100 billion in lost disposable income for households. The total, $275 billion, or nearly 2 percent of GDP, dwarfs the $44 billion in actual spending cuts mandated by the sequester….
The payroll tax hike wiped out a year’s worth of wage gains
average weekly earnings payroll

$50B lost disposable income secondary to higher gas prices

Gasoline reaches a fresh high for the year, but its climb isn’t over
The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline climbed to $3.782 on Tuesday, edging above the previous year-to-date high of $3.781 seen on Feb. 22, according to AAA.
Prices are up from Monday’s $3.777. They’ve gained almost 44 cents a gallon from a month ago, AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report shows.

3 Month Average Retail Price Chart:

gasbuddy.com
- See more at: http://investmentwatchblog.com/us-recession-is-on-the-cards-for-q1q2/#sthash.JywnLtIg.dpuf

HILARIOUS: Dems Complain About Debt Clock

Maxine Waters would rather that you not remind her about the national debt.



Freaking brilliant.
Maxine Waters and Keith Ellison provide the comedy.
"At the request of the ranking member, the national debt clock will not be put on the screens during Democratic time."
Yo Maxine, here's your debt clock - still borrowing $3,000,000 per minute.


Details here: Dems complain about presence of debt clock on Capitol Hill...
---
Flashback bonus clip:




National Debt Gets Too Big For Debt Clock - Brian Williams NBC
Broadcast Oct. 5, 2008.   The national debt was just crossing $10 trillion.  Four years later it is almost $17 trillion.
Filed Under: Shoot me now.


How the Fed Could Fix the Economy—and Why It Hasn’t

Quantitative easing (QE) is supposed to stimulate the economy by adding money to the money supply, increasing demand. But so far, it hasn’t been working. Why not? Because as practiced for the last two decades, QE does not actually increase the circulating money supply. It merely cleans up the toxic balance sheets of banks. A real “helicopter drop” that puts money into the pockets of consumers and businesses has not yet been tried. Why not?  Another good question . . . .
When Ben Bernanke gave his famous helicopter money speech to the Japanese in 2002, he was not yet chairman of the Federal Reserve.  He said then that the government could easily reverse a deflation, just by printing money and dropping it from helicopters. “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent),” he said, “that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.” Later in the speech he discussed “a money-financed tax cut,” which he said was “essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous ‘helicopter drop’ of money.” Deflation could be cured, said Professor Friedman, simply by dropping money from helicopters.
It seemed logical enough. If the money supply were insufficient for the needs of trade, the solution was to add money to it. Most of the circulating money supply consists of “bank credit” created by banks when they make loans. When old loans are paid off faster than new loans are taken out (as is happening today), the money supply shrinks. The purpose of QE is to reverse this contraction.
But if debt deflation is so easy to fix, then why have the Fed’s massive attempts to pull this maneuver off failed to revive the economy? And why is Japan still suffering from deflation after 20 years of quantitative easing?

On a technical level, the answer has to do with where the money goes. The widespread belief that QE is flooding the economy with money is a myth. Virtually all of the money it creates simply sits in the reserve accounts of banks.
That is the technical answer, but the motive behind it may be something deeper . . . .
An Asset Swap Is Not a Helicopter Drop
As QE is practiced today, the money created on a computer screen never makes it into the real, producing economy. It goes directly into bank reserve accounts, and it stays there.  Except for the small amount of “vault cash” available for withdrawal from commercial banks, bank reserves do not leave the doors of the central bank.
According to Peter Stella, former head of the Central Banking and Monetary and Foreign Exchange Operations Divisions at the International Monetary Fund:
[B]anks do not lend “reserves”. . . . Whether commercial banks let the reserves they have acquired through QE sit “idle” or lend them out in the internet bank market 10,000 times in one day among themselves, the aggregate reserves at the central bank at the end of that day will be the same.
This point is also stressed in Modern Monetary Theory.  As explained by Prof. Scott Fullwiler:
Banks can’t “do” anything with all the extra reserve balances. Loans create deposits—reserve balances don’t finance lending or add any “fuel” to the economy. Banks don’t lend reserve balances except in the federal funds market, and in that case the Fed always provides sufficient quantities to keep the federal funds rate at its . . . interest rate target.
Reserves are used simply to clear checks between banks. They move from one reserve account to another, but the total money in bank reserve accounts remains unchanged.  Banks can lend their reserves to each other, but they cannot lend them to us.
QE as currently practiced is simply an asset swap. The central bank swaps newly-created dollars for toxic assets clogging the balance sheets of commercial banks. This ploy keeps the banks from going bankrupt, but it does nothing for the balance sheets of federal or local governments, consumers, or businesses.
Central Bank Ignorance or Intentional Sabotage?
Another Look at the Japanese Experience
That brings us to the motive.  Twenty years is a long time to repeat a policy that isn’t working.
UK Professor Richard Werner invented the term quantitative easing when he was advising the Japanese in the 1990s.  He says he had something quite different in mind from the current practice.  He intended for QE to increase the credit available to the real economy.  Today, he says:
[A]ll QE is doing is to help banks increase the liquidity of their portfolios by getting rid of longer-dated slightly less liquid assets and raising cash. . . . Reserve expansion is a standard monetarist policy and required no new label.
Werner contends that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) intentionally sabotaged his proposal, adopting his language but not his policy; and other central banks have taken the same approach since.
In his book Princes of the Yen (2003), Werner maintains that in the 1990s, the BOJ consistently foiled government attempts at creating a recovery. As summarized in a review of the book:
The post-war disappearance of the military triggered a power struggle between the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan for control over the economy.  While the Ministry strove to maintain the controlled economic system that created Japan’s post-war economic miracle, the central bank plotted to break free from the Ministry by reverting to the free markets of the 1920s.
. . . They reckoned that the wartime economic system and the vast legal powers of the Ministry of Finance could only be overthrown if there was a large crisis – one that would be blamed on the ministry.  While observers assumed that all policy-makers have been trying their best to kick-start Japan’s economy over the past decade, the surprising truth is that one key institution did not try hard at all.
Werner contends that the Bank of Japan not only blocked the recovery but actually created the bubble that precipitated the downturn:
[T]hose central bankers who were in charge of the policies that prolonged the recession were the very same people who were responsible for the creation of the bubble. . . . [They] ordered the banks to expand their lending aggressively during the 1980s.  In 1989, [they] suddenly tightened their credit controls, thus bringing down the house of cards that they had built up before. . . .
With banks paralysed by bad debts, the central bank held the key to a recovery: only it could step in and create more credit.  It failed to do so, and hence the recession continued for years.  Thanks to the long recession, the Ministry of Finance was broken up and lost its powers. The Bank of Japan became independent and its power has now become legal.
In the US, too, the central bank holds the key to recovery. Only it can create more credit for the broad economy. But reversing recession has taken a backseat to resuscitating zombie banks, maintaining the feudal dominion of a private financial oligarchy.
In Japan, interestingly, all that may be changing with the election of a new administration. As reported in a January 2013 article in Business Week:
Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party swept back into power in mid-December by promising a high-octane mix of monetary and fiscal policies to pull Japan out of its two-decade run of economic misery. To get there, Prime Minister Abe is threatening a hostile takeover of the Bank of Japan, the nation’s central bank. The terms of surrender may go something like this: Unless the BOJ agrees to a 2 percent inflation target and expands its current government bond-buying operation, the ruling LDP might push a new central bank charter through the Japanese Diet. That charter would greatly diminish the BOJ’s independence to set monetary policy and allow the prime minister to sack its governor.
From Bankers’ Bank to Government Bank
Making the central bank serve the interests of the government and the people is not a new idea. Prof. Tim Canova points out that central banks have only recently been declared independent of government:
[I]ndependence has really come to mean a central bank that has been captured by Wall Street interests, very large banking interests.  It might be independent of the politicians, but it doesn’t mean it is a neutral arbiter.  During the Great Depression and coming out of it, the Fed took its cues from Congress.  Throughout the entire 1940s, the Federal Reserve as a practical matter was not independent. It took its marching orders from the White House and the Treasury—and it was the most successful decade in American economic history.
To free the central bank from Wall Street capture, Congress or the president could follow the lead of Shinzo Abe and threaten a hostile takeover of the Fed unless it directs its credit firehose into the real economy. The unlimited, near-zero-interest credit line made available to banks needs to be made available to federal and local governments.
When a similar suggestion was made to Ben Bernanke in January 2011, however, he said he lacked the authority to comply. If that was what Congress wanted, he said, it would have to change the Federal Reserve Act.
And that is what may need to be done—rewrite the Federal Reserve Act to serve the interests of the economy and the people.
Webster Tarpley observes that the Fed advanced $27 trillion to financial institutions through the TAF (Term Asset Facility), the TALF (Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility), and similar facilities. He proposes an Infrastructure Facility extending credit on the same terms to state and local governments. It might offer to buy $3 trillion in 100-year, zero-coupon bonds, the minimum currently needed to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. The collateral backing these bonds would be sounder than the commercial paper of zombie banks, since it would consist of the roads, bridges, and other tangible infrastructure built with the loans. If the bond issuers defaulted, the Fed would get the infrastructure.
Quantitative easing as practiced today is not designed to serve the real economy. It is designed to serve bankers who create money as debt and rent it out for a fee. The money power needs to be restored to the people and the government, but we need an executive and legislature willing to stand up to the banks. A popular movement could give them the backbone.  In the meantime, states could set up their own banks, which could leverage the state’s massive capital and revenue base into credit for the local economy.

Fed To Prompt Currency Crash and Return to Gold Standard

by GoldCore
Today’s AM fix was USD 1,608.50, EUR 1,228.80 and GBP 1,062.28 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,597.25, EUR 1,219.65 and GBP 1,052.07 per ounce.
Silver is trading at $29.13/oz, €22.32/oz and £19.33/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,611.00/oz, palladium at $736.00/oz and rhodium at $1,200/oz.
Gold climbed $19.30 or 1.3% yesterday in New York and closed at $1,613.90/oz. Silver surged to as high as $29.456 and ended with a gain of 1.2%.

Cross Currency Table – (Bloomberg)

Gold’s 1.3% gain yesterday was its biggest one-day gain in three months, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s defense of U.S. debt monetisation confirmed bullion’s inflation hedging appeal.
‘Helicopter Bernanke’ confirmed the Fed’s ultra dovish monetary policies are to continue which supported gold as a hedge against central banks’ cash printing.
Gold is trading flat today near a one and a half week high hit yesterday as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the U.S.  ultra loose monetary policy.
The selloff in gold ETFs in February underscores the weakness in gold sentiment among retail investors that has been prominent recently.
Our trading desk has never been so busy – on the sell side – as weak hands and lack of conviction buyers have engaged in panic selling.
However, the sell off’s genesis was again hedge fund and bank paper players on the COMEX many of whom still have large concentrated short positions.

Total Known ETF Holdings of Gold – (Bloomberg)

February is set to be the weakest month in terms of gold ETF outflows thus far, and the decline is set to exceed the 2.3 million ounces liquidated back in January 2011.
Total known gold holdings held by exchange traded funds worldwide include the SPDR, ETF Securities, ZKB, iShares, Swiss & Global, Central Fund, Credit Suisse, Source, New Gold, Sprott Gold, Deutsche Bank, Central Goldtrust, Claymore (now iShares), and Goldist.
It is important to note that despite the significant decline in gold holdings in January 2011, gold bottomed at $1,313/oz on January 27, 2011 and then embarked on its nearly 50% increase or $600 increase to record nominal highs above $1,900/oz.
World powers and Iran ended two-days of talks over the Islamic Republic’s disputed nuclear program with a pledge to hold further discussions at both technical and political levels, an Iranian official said.
The officials adjourned without an announcement on a proposal by the U.S. and its partners to ease some banking, petrochemical and gold sanctions if Iran curbs its atomic activities.

Gold in USD (February 2010 To Today) – Support At $1,540/oz to $1,550/oz Level – (Bloomberg)

Jim Grant, astute monetary economist and respected author of the Interest Rate Observer said in a Bloomberg interview overnight that the dollar would crash and  a new Gold Standard would be the end result of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s irresponsibilities.


Although the interviewer said that Grant’s remarks were inflammatory Grant said that it is important to examine our monetary affairs over the sweep of time.
“Over 100 years ago the U.S. Fed was founded and in 1944 at Bretton Woods they decided there would be no more Gold Standard but rather a U.S. dollar that was backed by gold. If you fast forward to the present we now have a full blown PhD standard where the former heads of Economic Departments are running federal institutions. Central Banks across the world are waging an all out struggle against the price mechanism which is going against Adam Smith’s invisible hand.”
A guest host said that no one in academia is calling for a Gold Standard and suggested it would result in a deflationary period for the U.S.
Grant disagreed and said that the Gold Standard is the only answer as it was monetary system good practice for the 100 years ending in 1914, whereas everything else since has been a “try out”.
Grant says that he expects more quantitative easing from the U. S. Fed, and likens their single mindedness to a doctor prescribing to a patient that is clearly overmedicated.
He notes, credit in the world is an infinite sum of numerous simultaneous equations. He notes that if humans knew how to allocate credit than the USSR would have been a success. Socialists unions over manipulating credit don’t work.
Therefore, just as central banks are continually try to print their way out of our current global debt crisis their manipulation is not working.

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NEWS

Gold holds near 1-1/2-week high as Bernanke backs stimulus – Reuters
Gold gains most in 3 months as Bernanke defends policy – Reuters
Gold Miners Come Clean on Costs After Lost 6 Years – Bloomberg
U.S. to ease some banking, petrochemical and gold sanctions if Iran curbs its atomic activities – Bloomberg
World’s largest gold ETF cleared for HK pensioners – Asian Investor
Gold posts best day of 2013 – CNN
COMMENTARY
Video: Why Gold Is a Buy – CNBC
Video: Fed To Prompt Currency Crash and Return to Gold Standard – Bloomberg
Gold Looks Good and Why I Welcome The Collapsing Pound – Money Week
Structural Bull Market For Wheat – Dr. Thomas Chaize
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