Friday, April 26, 2013

France's unemployment figure hits record level

A wave of industry lay-offs pushed the country's unemployment rate higher
A wave of industry lay-offs pushed the country's unemployment rate higher
France’s unemployment rate rose to a record 3.225 million in March, according to the latest figures.
The rate represents a 1.2% rise on the previous month and is 11.5% higher than the same time last year.
March was the 23rd straight month to record a rise in unemployment, with the figure now higher than the previous recorded peak of 3,195,500 set in January 1997.
The figures are a symbolic blow to Socialist President Francois Hollande, whose approval ratings have sunk to the lowest of any modern French leader in recent months as jobless claims soared.
Battling to make good on his promise to reverse the rise in unemployment by the end of this year, he has launched subsidised youth-job schemes and pushed through a reform to make hiring and firing slightly easier.
Hollande today reaffirmed his goal to reverse the rising trend, calling on his government to combine with industry and other players to use all means possible to create jobs.
"Everything the government does, in every ministry, must be to continue to strengthen the battle for jobs," he told a news conference during a state visit to China. "I want all the French people to unite behind this one national priority."
In a satirical dig at Hollande, steelworkers in eastern France erected a marble tombstone to his election promises as ArcelorMittal permanently shut two blast furnaces many had hoped he could save.
In a bitter irony, the only place to have announced any major hiring plan recently is the national employment agency Pole Emploi, which said last month it would hire 2,000 extra staff by September.
Auto-makers, once major job-providers, have announced thousands of staff cuts, with PSA Peugeot Citroen scrapping more than 10,000 domestic jobs and rival Renault aiming to cut 7,500 posts in France by 2016.
The labour ministry data are the most frequently reported jobs indicator in the country, although they are not prepared according to International Labour Organisation standards nor expressed as a percentage of job seekers in the work force.
The March data also showed that the average time that jobseekers spend on the jobless roster hit a new multi-year high of 485 days, up from a previous record of 482 in February, a level that was also reached in April 2000.

JPMorgan's Eligible Gold Plummets 65% In 24 Hours To All Time Low

We are confident that in the aftermath of our article from last night "Just What Is Going On With The Gold In JPMorgan's Vault?" in which we showed the absolute devastation of "eligible" (aka commercial) gold warehoused in JPM's vault just over the Manhattan bedrock at 1 Chase Manhattan Place (and also in the entire Comex vault network in the past month), we were not the only ones checking every five minutes for the Comex gold depository update for April 25. Moments ago we finally got it, and it's a doozy. Because in just the past 24 hours, from April 24 to April 25, according to the Comex, JPM's eligible gold plunged from 402.4K ounces to just 141.6K ounces, a drop of 65% in 24 hours,and  the lowest amount of eligible gold held at the vault on record, since its reopening in October 2010!
Everyone has seen what a run on the bank looks like. Below is perhaps the best chart of what a "run on the vault" is.

The absolute collapse in JPM's eligible gold inventory, means total Comex eligible gold has fallen to just 5.8 million ounces, half of what it was in early 2011, and back to levels last seen in March 2009.

So, once again, just like last night, we ask the same questions which are even more critical today than they were 24 hours ago:
  1. What happened to the commercial gold vaulted with JPM, and what was the reason for the historic drawdown?
  2. Gold, unlike fiat, is not created out of thin air, nor can it be shred or deleted. Where did the gold leaving the JPM warehouse end up (especially since registered JPM and total Comex gold has been relatively flat over the same period)?
  3. Did any of this gold make its way across the street, and end up at the vault of the building located at 33 Liberty street?
  4. What happens if and/or when the JPM vault is empty of commercial gold, and JPM receives a delivery notice?
Incidentally, JPM now has just under a paltry 5 tons of eligible gold left in storage. We hope this is also the maximum exposure it faces for imminent delivery requests, because if tomorrow it receives withdrawal requests for 141,581.5 ounces +1, then things get really interesting.

This Would Be A Good Time To Buy Yuan As A Hedge Against The US Dollar While China Is Actively Working To End The Petro-Dollar

China’s been busy. This would be a good time to buy yuan as a hedge against the US fiat dollar.
7.000 yuan = $1372
https://www.sterlingcurrencygroup.com/buy-currencies.html
Yuan reaches record high against the US dollar
Further appreciation predicted, which would fuel inflation on the mainland and in Hong Kong
http://www.scmp.com/news/article/1213468/yuan-reaches-record-high-against-us-dollar
Petrodollar:
petrodollar is a United States dollar earned by a country through the sale of its petroleum (oil) to another country.[1] The term was coined in 1973 by Georgetown University economics professor, Ibrahim Oweiss, who recognized the need for a term that could describe the dollar received by petroleum exporting countries (OPEC) in exchange for oil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrodollar
How the Chinese currency is replacing the U.S. Dollar in global oil markets
April 17, 2013 – History is being written in the East. As the U.S. stays distracted with stone age warriors in Central Asia and the Middle East, the last platform of the American economic foundation, the U.S. Dollar’s currency reserve status, is being underminded by their trade partners in Asia. Both Australia and Japan are set to start direct-trading in Chinese currency and they are not the only ones. There are almost 20 countries whom have currency swaps in place with China all in order to side-step the U.S. Dollar in global trade. At the China Money Report, we have written extensively on the “Rise of the Renminbi”. What is new and largely unreported and what we will cover in this article is the “Rise of the Petroyuan,” as China is now converting its oil imports into Chinese Yuan as opposed to U.S. Dollars. This will be a new challenge and possibly the fatal blow to the U.S. Dollar as the dominant global reserve currency.
With their industrial base all but gone, the housing market bubble popped, and the Federal Resereve funding the majority of the government debt with printed currency, the American economy can ill-afford a new challenge to its currency’s reserve status. It is this very reserve status which has led to America being able to consume more than it produces for decades upon decades as foriegn countries were willing to trade consumer products for paper IOU’s. The Dollar’s reserve status came about naturally after WW2 as the U.S. was the world’s larget trading nation, exporter, and creditor. Today, China occuppies all of these slots.
China will soon occupy a new slot: That of the world’s largest oil importer. OPEC has confirmed on April 4th of this year that they expect China to surpass the United States as the world’s largest oil importer in 2014. This shift in global oil flows is being driven by the twin pillars of a booming Chinese economy and America’s newfound booming domestic oil and gas supply. This shift in the oil trade carries with it massive geopolitical implications that will reshape the world as we know it.
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/dan-collins/rise-petro-yuan
China and Iceland seal free trade agreement
http://www.france24.com/en/20130415-china-iceland-seal-free-trade-agreement
15 APRIL 2013 – AFP – Iceland became the first European country to sign a free trade agreement with China on Monday, as Beijing looks to gain a foothold in the strategic Arctic region
Xi calls for enriching Sino-French partnership
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-04/12/c_132304781.htm

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) — President Xi Jinping said Friday that China and France should deepen mutual trust, enhance cooperation and enrich bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership. Xi expressed his belief that the development of China-France relations benefits not only the two nations and the two peoples, but is also conducive to constructing new patterns for developed nations to work with emerging economies and developing nations, boosting China-European Union relations and making progress in the multi-polarization and democratization of the international relations.
China and Australia in currency pact
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22075345
The Australian dollar has become the third currency, along with the US dollar and the Japanese yen, to trade directly with the Chinese yuan.The move is seen as a significant step in China’s push for a more international role for its currency. Beijing is trying to promote the yuan as an alternative to the US dollar’s role as a global reserve currency. China is the biggest buyer of Australia’s natural resources such as iron ore. But with no mechanism in place to directly convert between the Australian dollar and the Chinese yuan, the two countries have long used the US dollar as a trading currency. Indeed, most commodities and commodity futures are priced using the US currency. There is no international law that dictates that all contracts must be agreed upon in US dollar terms” With the new deal coming into effect, there is likely to be an increase in Australian and Chinese firms agreeing prices in either of their currencies. “There is no international law that dictates that all contracts must be agreed upon in US dollar terms,” said Mr Oakley.
“All that the companies have to do is pick up the phone, talk to each other, and decide what currency they want to use.”
China and Brazil sign $30bn currency swap agreement
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21949615
China and Brazil have signed a currency swap deal, designed to safeguard against future global financial crises. Along with being the world’s second-largest economy, China is also Brazil’s biggest trading partner. “If there were shocks to the global financial market, with credit running short, we’d have credit from our biggest international partner, so there would be no interruption of trade,” said Guido Mantega, Brazil’s economy minister. The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the fifth Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit being held in Durban, South Africa.
UK and China poised for currency swap deal
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21552601
The Bank of England is in negotiations with its Chinese counterpart on a deal likely to boost trade between the UK and China in the yuan. The Bank and the People’s Bank of China are close to signing a three-year currency swap arrangement, governor Sir Mervyn King said. The UK is looking to become a centre for the Chinese currency, also known as the renminbi. Such agreements allow central banks to swap currencies and can be used by firms to settle trade in local currencies rather than in US dollars, as happens now, since China’s currency is not fully convertible to other currencies.
G20 considers wider role for China’s yuan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12905205
G20 leaders have moved towards agreeing that China’s currency should have a wider role in global finance.
Iraqi oil: Once seen as U.S. boon, now it’s mostly China’s
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/27/187100/iraqi-oil-once-seen-as-us-boon.html
WASHINGTON — Ten years after the United States invaded and occupied Iraq, the country’s oil industry is poised to boom and make the troubled nation the No.2 oil exporter in the world. But the nation that’s moving to take advantage of Iraq’s riches isn’t the United States. It’s China. The International Energy Agency expects China to become the main customer for Iraq’s vast oil reserves. Fatih Birol, the agency’s chief economist, recently declared “a new trade axis is being formed between Baghdad and Beijing.” Birol said that about 80 percent of Iraq’s future oil exports were expected to go to Asia, mainly to China.
The Tower of Basel: Secretive Plans for the Issuing of a Global Currency
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-tower-of-basel-secretive-plans-for-the-issuing-of-a-global-currency/13239


Reality Check: Is This The End of The Petro-dollar?


Alexander

Desperate Optimism and Unlimited Promises Don’t Equal a Solvent Financial System

by Phoenix Capital Research

IMF Director Christine Lagard is “optimistic” about the world. In terms of Europe, she believes that the ECB is the only Central Bank that has “a bit of space” to work with.

It’s a good thing Lagarde is optimistic about things and believes the ECB can do more… because European markets are rapidly losing optimism and will be likely needing that extra “space” form the ECB in due order.

Italy stopped being in an uptrend months ago and is now in danger of taking out major support:



The same goes for Spain’s Ibex:



Even Germany’s stock market, the DAX, is breaking down in a big way.



Most importantly for Mario Draghi, European financials are now in a clear downtrend:




Get that “extra space” to move ready, Mr. Draghi. Your promise to provide unlimited buying of bonds might get put to the test!

If you’re an individual investor worried about what Europe’s Crisis really means for your portfolio, we’ve published a FREE Special Report outlining exactly that. It’s titled, What Europe Means For You and Your Savings.

In this report, we outline the risks Europe’s banking crisis holds not only for those in Europe, but for savers around the world. We also explain how this crisis will most likely unfold, including which areas are most at risk in the financial system. And we cap it off by listing multiple backdoor plays on Europe that investors can use to profit from Europe’s Crisis.

You can pick up a FREE copy here:

http://gainspainscapital.com/what-europes-collapse-means-for-your-savings/

Thank you for reading!

Graham Summers

We Are Witnessing UNPRECEDENTED Shortages Of Ammo, Physical Gold And Physical Silver All Over The United States

By Michael
Panic Button By John On Flickr
All over the United States we are witnessing unprecedented shortages of ammunition, physical gold and physical silver.  Recent events have helped fuel a “buying frenzy” that threatens to spiral out of control.  Gun shops all over the nation are reporting that they have never seen it this bad, and in many cases any ammo that they are able to get is being sold even before it hits the shelves.  The ammo shortage has already become so severe that police departments all over America are saying that they are being told that it is going to take six months to a year to get their orders.  In fact, many police departments have begun to trade and barter with one another to get the ammo that they need.  Meanwhile, the takedown of paper gold and paper silver has unleashed an avalanche of “panic buying” of physical gold and physical silver all over the planet.  In the United States, some dealers are charging premiums of more than 25 percent over the spot price for gold and silver and they are getting it.  People are paying these prices even though they are being told that delivery will not happen for a month or two in many cases.  Some dealers are feverishly taking as many orders as they can, and they are just hoping that they will be able to get the physical gold and silver to eventually fill those orders.  Personally, I have never seen anything like this.  If things are this tight now, what is going to happen when the next major financial crisis strikes and people really begin to panic?
The shortages and rationing of ammunition at gun shops all over America just seem to keep getting worse.  The following is from an article by a gun owner down in Texas named Brad Meyer
If you’d like to see a normally sullen sales clerk chortle with derisive pleasure, just walk into just about any gun range, sporting goods store or mass merchandiser and try and buy a couple boxes of .22 ammunition.
Gun enthusiasts are up in arms about a nationwide shortage of ammunition. Handgun ammo in general is particularly difficult to find – and when you do find it, there are restrictions on the amount you can buy and how much you’re going to be paying for it.
While the list of hard to find ammo is long, .22 long rifle and 9mm handgun ammunition are particularly difficult to find in quantity. And the few places that have it are charging a premium rate and usually limiting purchases to one box, per person, per day.
Many gun owners try to find ammunition by going on the Internet, but things have gotten so tight that now any ammo that becomes available online is often gone within seconds
There are websites where people across the country post links to where ammunition is available – and it sells out within seconds. Not minutes or hours – seconds.
Unfortunately, all of this demand is also driving up prices.  Just check out what Meyer says is happening to the price of standard .22 ammo…
The demand is driving up the cost of ammunition. Six months ago, standard .22 ammo – the most common type of bullet produced in the world – could be had in bulk for around five cents apiece. It is now going for 50 cents or more on some websites – and people are paying it.
But this shortage is not just affecting private citizens.  According toNewmax, police departments all over the nation are dealing with ammo shortages unlike anything that they have ever seen before…
Sheriff Anthony DeMeo of Nye County, Nev., was told his department’s regular order of 50,000 rounds could take up to a year to arrive.
“This is the first time ever I’ve heard that there’s a problem with a law-enforcement agency getting ammo for their agency,” DeMeo told The Las Vegas Sun.
These departments are not alone. Law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia are among many that are having to limit how much they give their officers due to the shortage.
Could you imagine waiting for “up to a year” to get more ammunition?
A recent article posted on CNSNews.com had some more examples of police departments that are reporting that there is a massive wait to get more ammo…
Chief Pryor of Rollingwood, Texas says of the shortage:
“We started making phone calls and realized there is a waiting list up to a year.  We have to limit the amount of times we go and train because we want to keep an adequate stock.”
“Nobody can get us ammunition at this point,” saysSgt. Jason LaCross of the Bozeman, Montana police department.
LaCross says that manufacturers are so far behind that they won’t even give him a quote for an order.
“We have no estimated time on when it will even be available,” LaCross says.
This is insane.
What in the world could be causing such an ammo crunch?
Well, certainly the demand for guns and ammo has been trending up in recent years – especially since Barack Obama was elected.
But that doesn’t fully account for the shortages that we are witnessing at the moment.
So what is going on?
Well, some people believe that the federal government is responsible.  It has been reported that they have signed contracts to purchase “up to” 1.6billion rounds of ammunition.  According to Forbes, this amount of ammunition would be enough to fight a “hot war” in America for 20 years
The Denver Post, on February 15th, ran an Associated Press article entitled Homeland Security aims to buy 1.6b rounds of ammo, so far to little notice.  It confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security has issued an open purchase order for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition.  As reported elsewhere, some of this purchase order is for hollow-point rounds, forbidden by international law for use in war, along with a frightening amount specialized for snipers. Also reported elsewhere, at the height of the Iraq War the Army was expending less than 6 million rounds a month.  Therefore 1.6 billion rounds would be enough to sustain a hot war for 20+ years.  In America.
Could this be a way that the Obama administration is trying to restrict the amount of ammo that gets into the hands of private citizens?
That is what some people are suggesting.
According to talk radio show host Michael Savage, the ammo contracts that the federal government has signed give them priority over all other purchasers…
What Homeland Security is doing here is they’re issuing a contract to buy up to that amount of ammo if they want it…
It’s a way to control the amount of market that’s available on the commercial market at any time.
If they go to the ammo manufacturers and say give me 50 million rounds, give me another 30 million rounds… if they periodically do this in increments, they’re going to control how much ammo is available on the commercial market.
As part of their contract it stipulates in there that when the government calls and says give us another quantity, that everything they make has to go to the government priority one before any of it goes to the commercial market.
So, if  they get nervous, all they have to do is use that contract that they have in place… and they just say ‘give us some more.’
So whenever the government wants to tighten the supply of ammunition, all they have to do is invoke their contracts and order more for themselves.
Meanwhile, Obama appears to be doing other things to restrict the amount of ammo that gets into the hands of private gun owners.
For example, there are reports that the Obama administration plans to use executive orders to greatly restrict the importation of ammo from overseas.
So if anything, the shortage of ammunition is only going to get worse, not better.
Meanwhile, the “panic buying” of physical gold and physical silver that we have seen lately has really run down inventories.
According to Reuters, demand has become so intense that the U.S. Mint has suspended sales of gold coins for the first time since 2009…
The U.S. Mint said it has suspended sales of its one-tenth ounce American Eagle gold bullion coins as surging demand after bullion’s plunge to two-year lows depleted the government’s inventory. This marks the first time it has stopped selling gold product since November 2009, dealers said.
At the same time, precious metals dealers all over the country are scrambling to meet the voracious demand that they have been seeing this month.  The following is an excerpt from a letter that the CEO of Texas Precious Metals recently sent out to his customers…
The physical silver market is, in a word, ugly. There is no telling at this point when mint inventories will return to normal, but you can be sure it will not happen within the next 8 weeks. Most dealers, at this point, are selling their current customer demand forward, meaning they are selling product they do not presently have, expecting to pull from future mint allocations. Consequently, future allocations will face pressure from today’s demand. It is not my intent here to comment on the business practices of other companies, but I will say that no one can possibly predict future allocations at the time. The US mint, for example, releases its allocations weekly, and until then, dealers have no insight into allocation levels. Last week, we turned away business in excess of 100,000 ozs of silver because of stock depletion. However, we stand by the notion that it is better to lose a sale than lose a customer by delaying delivery two months (or more).
A similar thing is happening over in Asia.  According to the Financial Times, soaring demand has caused a shortage of gold at the Hong Kong Gold & Silver Exchange Society…
Haywood Cheung, president of the Hong Kong Gold & Silver Exchange Society, said the exchange had effectively run out of most of its holdings as members looked to meet a shortfall in supply amid rampant retail demand for gold products.
“In terms of volume, I haven’t seen this gold rush for over 20 years,” he told the Financial Times on Monday, adding that the exchange only had around twenty 1kg bars, and 100 five-tael bars left in its inventory. “Older members who have been in the business for 50 years haven’t seen such a thing.”
But most disturbing of all is what Jim Sinclair told King World Newsrecently.  Apparently his friend went to get his gold out of a Swiss bank the other day and they refused to give it to him…
A person that I know with significant deposits in one of the primary Swiss banks, in allocated gold, wanted to take out his gold and was just refused on the basis of directives from the central bank….
They told him the amount was in excess of 200,000 Swiss francs and the central bank had instructed them not to do it because it has to do with anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering precautions.
I really wonder whether those are precautions or whether the gold simply isn’t there. Now you tell me that a London delivery has basically failed. It has to raise our suspicions that the lack of physical gold behind the paper gold is literally so severe that we are coming to understand that it is in fact not there.
The gold that people think is stored is not stored, and the inventory of the warehouses for exchanges may not be holding deliverable gold. There has always been speculation about whether or not the physical gold the US claims to store is in fact in those vaults.
The greatest train robbery in history might be all of the gold, and it would only be something like we have described above that would happen right before gold makes historic highs.
There simply is no gold behind the paper. One example is AMRO, a second is your example with Maguire, and a third is my dear friend who was refused his gold on the basis that its value was too high. Remember this friend of mine had his gold in an allocated account in storage at a major Swiss bank. I repeat, there is no gold.
So are we going to see more of this?
Will it soon become evident that there is simply not enough physical gold to cover all of the promises that the banks have made?
Jim Sinclair sure seems to think so.
In another interview, John Embry expressed similar sentiments to King World News…
This gets back to the tip of the iceberg when the Dutch Bank ABN AMRO came out and literally said that if you have allocated gold with us, you can’t have it.
That, to me, is a default, and it gets back to what Jim Sinclair related when one of his friends went to a Swiss bank and couldn’t get his allocated gold.  I mean that’s preposterous.  If it’s allocated it should be there, but it’s clearly not there.  I think this is the beginning of the end of the massive Ponzi scheme in paper gold.  I have been talking about this for some time, and it will have an enormous impact on future gold and silver prices.
When it becomes widely known that all of the people who think they own gold in fact don’t own gold, that it’s been hypothecated and re-hypothecated so many times that there are 100 claims for every single ounce of physical gold, that is when the prices of gold and silver will really go berserk to the upside, and at that point the shorts will have serious problems.”
If those that helped engineer the recent takedown of paper gold and silver were hoping to scare people away from physical gold and silver, then they failed miserably.  For even more on this, please see my recent article entitled “10 Signs The Takedown Of Paper Gold Has Unleashed An Unprecedented Global Run On Physical Gold And Silver“.
All of this is just another example why I encourage people to get prepared while times are still relatively good.
Once disaster strikes, it may be too late to get the things that you need.
Right now there are a whole lot of people out there wishing that they had stocked up on ammo when it was much cheaper and much more readily available.
We are moving into a time when everything that can be shaken will be shaken.  Use the stability provided by the false bubble of economic hope that we are experiencing right now as an opportunity to get prepared.  The next major wave of the economic collapse is rapidly approaching and time is running out.

Child Hunger Is Exploding In Greece – And 14 Signs That It Is Starting To Happen In America Too


ChildThe world is heading into a horrific economic nightmare, and an inordinate amount of the suffering is going to fall on innocent children.  If you want to get an idea of what America is going to look like in the not too distant future, just check out what is happening in Greece.  At this point, Greece is experiencing a full-blown economic depression.  As I have written about previously, the unemployment rate in Greece has now risen to 27 percent, which is much higher than the peak unemployment rate that the U.S. economy experienced during the Great Depression of the 1930s.  And as you will read about below, child hunger is absolutely exploding in Greece right now.  Some families are literally trying to survive on pasta and ketchup.  But don't think for a moment that it can't happen here.  Sadly, the truth is that child hunger is already rising very rapidly in our poverty-stricken cities.  Never before have we had so many Americans unable to take care of themselves.  Food stamp enrollment and child homelessness have soared to brand new all-time records, and there are actually thousands of Americans that are so poor that they live in tunnels underneath our cities.  But for millions of other Americans, the suffering is not quite so dramatic.  Instead, they just watch their hopes and their dreams slowly slip away as they struggle to find a way to make it from month to month.  There are millions of parents that lead lives that are filled with constant stress and anxiety as they try to figure out how to provide the basics for their children.  How do you tell a child that you can't give them any dinner even though you have been trying as hard as you can?  What many families go through on a regular basis is absolutely heartbreaking.  Unfortunately, more poor families slip through the cracks with each passing day, and these are supposedly times in which we are experiencing an "economic recovery".  So what are things going to look like when the next major economic downturn strikes?
A recent New York Times article detailed the horrifying child hunger that we are witnessing in Greece right now.  At some schools there are reports of children actually begging for food from their classmates...
As an elementary school principal, Leonidas Nikas is used to seeing children play, laugh and dream about the future. But recently he has seen something altogether different, something he thought was impossible in Greece: children picking through school trash cans for food; needy youngsters asking playmates for leftovers; and an 11-year-old boy, Pantelis Petrakis, bent over with hunger pains.
“He had eaten almost nothing at home,” Mr. Nikas said, sitting in his cramped school office near the port of Piraeus, a working-class suburb of Athens, as the sound of a jump rope skittered across the playground. He confronted Pantelis’s parents, who were ashamed and embarrassed but admitted that they had not been able to find work for months. Their savings were gone, and they were living on rations of pasta and ketchup.
Could you imagine that happening to your children or your grandchildren?
Don't think that it can't happen.  Just a few years ago the Greek middle class was vibrant and thriving.
And we are starting to see hunger explode in other European countries as well.  For example, in the UK the number of people receiving emergency food rations has increased by 170 percent over the past year.
This is one of the reasons why I get upset when people say that "things are getting better".  Yes, the stock market has been setting record highs lately, but things are most definitely not getting better.
Even during this false bubble of debt-fueled economic stability that we are enjoying right now, we continue to see hunger and poverty rise dramatically in America.
Since Barack Obama has been president, the number of Americans on food stamps has grown from 32 million to more than 47 million.
Will we all be on food stamps eventually?
Will we all become dependent on the government for our survival at some point?
According to the Boston Herald, even Tamerlan Tsarnaev was receiving government welfare benefits...
Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism, the Herald has learned.
State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012 when the couple stopped meeting income eligibility limits.
Isn't that crazy?
And yes, there are some people out there that are abusing the system.  In fact, the cost of food stamp fraud has risen sharply to approximately $750 million in recent years.
But most of the people on these programs really need the help.  Thanks to our incredibly foolish economic policies, there are not enough good jobs for everyone and there never will be again.  The percentage of Americans that are unable to take care of themselves is going to continue to rise, and the suffering that we are witnessing right now is going to get much, much worse.
Not that things aren't really, really bad already.  Here are some signs that child hunger in America has already started to explode...
#1 Today, approximately 17 million children in the United States are facing food insecurity.  In other words, that means that "one in four children in the country is living without consistent access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy life."
#2 We are told that we live in the "wealthiest nation" on the planet, and yet more than one out of every four children in the United States is enrolled in the food stamp program.
#3 The average food stamp benefit breaks down to approximately $4 per person per day.
#4 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps before they reach the age of 18.
#5 It may be hard to believe, but approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are currently living in homes that are either considered to be either "low income" or impoverished.
#6 The number of children living on $2.00 a day or less in the United States has grown to 2.8 million.  That number has increased by 130 percent since 1996.
#7 According to Feeding America, "households with children reported food insecurity at a significantly higher rate than those without children, 20.6 percent compared to 12.2 percent".
#8 According to a Feeding America hunger study, more than 37 million Americans are now being served by food pantries and soup kitchens.
#9 For the first time ever, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.  That number has risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year.
#10 Approximately 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.
#11 One university study estimates that child poverty costs the U.S. economy 500 billion dollars each year.
#12 In Miami, 45 percent of all children are living in poverty.
#13 In Cleveland, more than 50 percent of all children are living in poverty.
#14 According to a recently released report, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.
For many more facts about the dramatic explosion of poverty in this country, please see my previous article entitled "21 Statistics About The Explosive Growth Of Poverty In America That Everyone Should Know".
Unfortunately, most of the time statistics don't really tell the whole story.  Numbers alone cannot really communicate the soul-crushing despair that millions of American families are enduring on a daily basis at this point.
How can numbers communicate the pain that a child feels when her grandmother does not eat because there is not enough food for everyone in the family?  But this is what some families in America actually go through because there is not enough money...
Vanyshia tells about the sacrifices her Grandmother makes so that she and her siblings can eat. “Sometimes my Grandma can’t even eat because she has to feed me and my brother and sister. Sometimes I don’t eat as much as I want to because I leave some for my Grandma because I don’t want her to sit there and starve. Sometimes she doesn’t have enough money to buy food, so she has to go to the bank and borrow money. It makes me feel sad. I don’t want her to be hungry. I just feel sad sometimes,” says Vanyshia.
Things can be particularly tough when you are a single parent.  The BBC recently profiled a single mother that is struggling to raise two young children in Iowa...
"We don't get three meals a day like breakfast, lunch and then dinner," says Kaylie. "When I feel hungry I feel sad and droopy."
Kaylie and Tyler live with their mother Barbara, who used to work in a factory. After losing her job, she was entitled to unemployment benefit and food stamps - this comes to $1,480 (£974) a month.
But they were no longer able to afford to live in their house, which along with bills cost $1,326 (£873) a month, leaving little for food or petrol.
Kaylie supplemented their income by collecting cans along the railway track near their old home - earning between two and five cents per can.
For more examples like this one, I encourage everyone to go watch a recent BBC documentary entitled "America's Poor Kids" that you can see right here.
I wonder why we don't see more stuff like this on the mainstream news in this country?
Could it be that the mainstream media does not want to admit how bad things have really gotten?
All of this is also a reminder that we need to be generous to those in need.  Times are going to get much, much harder than this, and we are all going to need one another.
So do you have any stories of poverty or child hunger from your area of the country to share?  Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below...
Child Hunger

No Bank Deposits Will Be Spared from Confiscation

I challenge anyone to prove me wrong that confiscation of bank deposits is legalized daylight robbery
Bank depositors in the UK and USA may think that their bank deposits would not be confiscated as they are insured and no government would dare embark on such a drastic action to bail out insolvent banks.
Before I explain why confiscation of bank deposits in the UK and US is a certainty and absolutely legal, I need all readers of this article to do the following:
Ask your local police, sheriffs, lawyers, judges the following questions:
1) If I place my money with a lawyer as a stake-holder and he uses the money without my consent, has the lawyer committed a crime?
2) If I store a bushel of wheat or cotton in a warehouse and the owner of the warehouse sold my wheat/cotton without my consent or authority, has the warehouse owner committed a crime?
3) If I place monies with my broker (stock or commodity) and the broker uses my monies for other purposes and or contrary to my instructions, has the broker committed a crime?
I am confident that the answer to the above questions is a Yes!
However, for the purposes of this article, I would like to first highlight the situation of the deposit / storage of wheat with a warehouse owner in relation to the deposit of money / storage with a banker.
First, you will notice that all wheat is the same i.e. the wheat in one bushel is no different from the wheat in another bushel. Likewise with cotton, it is indistinguishable. The deposit of a bushel of wheat with the warehouse owner in law constitutes a bailment. Ownership of the bushel of wheat remains with you and there is no transfer of ownership at all to the warehouse owner.
And as stated above, if the owner sells the bushel of wheat without your consent or authority, he has committed a crime as well as having committed a civil wrong (a tort) of conversion – converting your property to his own use and he can be sued.
Let me use another analogy. If a cashier in a supermarket removes $100 from the till on Friday to have a frolic on Saturday, he has committed theft, even though he may replace the $100 on Monday without the knowledge of the owner / manager of the supermarket. The $100 the cashier stole on Friday is also indistinguishable from the $100 he put back in the till on Monday. In both situations – the wheat in the warehouse and the $100 dollar bill in the till, which have been unlawfully misappropriated would constitute a crime.
Keep this principle and issue at the back of your mind.
Now we shall proceed with the money that you have deposited with your banker.
I am sure that most of you have little or no knowledge about banking, specifically fractional reserve banking.
Since you were a little kid, your parents have encouraged you to save some money to instil in you the good habit of money management.
And when you grew up and got married, you in turn instilled the same discipline in your children. Your faith in the integrity of the bank is almost absolute. Your money in the bank would earn an interest income.
And when you want your money back, all you needed to do is to withdraw the money together with the accumulated interest. Never for a moment did you think that you had transferred ownership of your money to the bank. Your belief was grounded in like manner as the owner of the bushel of wheat stored in the warehouse.
However, this belief is and has always been a lie. You were led to believe this lie because of savvy advertisements by the banks and government assurances that your money is safe and is protected by deposit insurance.
But, the insurance does not cover all the monies that you have deposited in the bank, but to a limited amount e.g. $250,000 in the US by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Germany €100,000, UK £85,000 etc.
But, unlike the owner of the bushel of wheat who has deposited the wheat with the warehouse owner, your ownership of the monies that you have deposited with the bank is transferred to the bank and all you have is the right to demand its repayment. And, if the bank fails to repay your monies (e.g. $100), your only remedy is to sue the bank and if the bank is insolvent you get nothing.
You may recover some of your money if your deposit is covered by an insurance scheme as referred to earlier but in a fixed amount. But, there is a catch here. Most insurance schemes whether backed by the government or not do not have sufficient monies to cover all the deposits in the banking system.
So, in the worst case scenario – a systemic collapse, there is no way for you to get your money back.
In fact, and as illustrated in the Cyprus banking fiasco, the authorities went to the extent of confiscating your deposits to pay the banks’ creditors. When that happened, ordinary citizens and financial analysts cried out that such confiscation was daylight robbery. But, is it?
Surprise, surprise!
It will come as a shock to all of you to know that such daylight robbery is perfectly legal and this has been so for hundreds of years.
Let me explain.
The reason is that unlike the owner of the bushel of wheat whose ownership of the wheat WAS NEVER TRANSFERRED to the warehouse owner when the same was deposited, the moment you deposited your money with the bank, the ownership is transferred to the bank.
Your status is that of A CREDITOR TO THE BANK and the BANK IS IN LAW A DEBTOR to you. You are deemed to have “lent” your money to the bank for the bank to apply to its banking business (even to gamble in the biggest casino in the world – the global derivatives casino).
You have become a creditor, AN UNSECURED CREDITOR. Therefore, by law, in the insolvency of a bank, you as an unsecured creditor stand last in the queue of creditors to be paid out of any funds and or assets which the bank has to pay its creditors. The secured creditors are always first in line to be paid. It is only after secured creditors have been paid and there are still some funds left (usually, not much, more often zilch!) that unsecured creditors are paid and the sums pro-rated among all the unsecured creditors.
This is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
The law has been in existence for hundreds of years and was established in England by the House of Lords in the case Foley v Hill in 1848.
When a customer deposits money with his banker, the relationship that arises is one of creditor and debtor, with the banker liable to repay the money deposited when demanded by the customer. Once money has been paid to the banker, it belongs to the banker and he is free to use the money for his own purpose.
I will now quote the relevant portion of the judgment of the House of Lords handed down by Lord Cottenham, the Lord Chancellor. He stated thus:
Money when paid into a bank, ceases altogether to be the money of the principal… it is then the money of the banker, who is bound to return an equivalent by paying a similar sum to that deposited with him when he is asked for it.
The money paid into the banker’s, is money known by the principal to be placed there for the purpose of being under the control of the banker; it is then the banker’s money; he is known to deal with it as his own; he makes what profit of it he can, which profit he retains himself,…
The money placed in the custody of the banker is, to all intent and purposes, the money of the banker, to do with it as he pleases; he is guilty of no breach of trust in employing it; he is not answerable TO THE PRINCIPAL IF HE PUTS IT INTO JEOPARDY, IF HE ENGAGES IN A HAZARDOUS SPECULATION; he is not bound to keep it or deal with it as the property of the principal, but he is of course answerable for the amount, because he has contracted, having received that money, to repay to the principal, when demanded, a sum equivalent to that paid into his hands.” (quoted in UK Law Essays,  Relationship Between A Banker And Customer,That Of A Creditor/Debtor, emphasis added,)
Holding that the relationship between a banker and his customer was one of debtor and creditor and not one of trusteeship, Lord Brougham said: 
“This trade of a banker is to receive money, and use it as if it were his own, he becoming debtor to the person who has lent or deposited with him the money to use as his own, and for which money he is accountable as a debtor. I cannot at all confound the situation of a banker with that of a trustee, and conclude that the banker is a debtor with a fiduciary character.”
In plain simple English – bankers cannot be prosecuted for breach of trust, because it owes no fiduciary duty to the depositor / customer, as he is deemed to be using his own money to speculate etc. There is absolutely no criminal liability.
The trillion dollar question is, Why has no one in the Justice Department or other government agencies mentioned this legal principle?
The reason why no one dare speak this legal truth is because there would be a run on the banks when all the Joe Six-Packs wise up to the fact that their deposits with the bankers CONSTITUTE IN LAW A LOAN TO THE BANK and the bank can do whatever it likes even to indulge in hazardous speculation such as gambling in the global derivative casino.
The Joe Six-Packs always consider the bank the creditor even when he deposits money in the bank. No depositor ever considers himself as the creditor!
Yes, Eric Holder, the US Attorney-General is right when he said that bankers cannot be prosecuted for the losses suffered by the bank. This is because a banker cannot be prosecuted for losing his “own money” as stated by the House of Lords. This is because when money is deposited with the bank, that money belongs to the banker.
The reason that if a banker is prosecuted it would collapse the entire banking system is a big lie.
The US Attorney-General could not and would not state the legal principle because it would cause a run on the banks when people discover that their monies are not safe with bankers as they can in law use the monies deposited as their own even to speculate.
What is worrisome is that your right to be repaid arises only when you demand payment.
Obviously, when you demand payment, the bank must pay you. But, if you demand payment after the bank has collapsed and is insolvent, it is too late. Your entitlement to be repaid is that of a lonely unsecured creditor and only if there are funds left after liquidation to be paid out to all the unsecured creditors and the remaining funds to be pro-rated. You would be lucky to get ten cents on the dollar.
So, when the Bank of England, the FED and the BIS issued the guidelines which became the template for the Cyprus “bail-in” (which was endorsed by the G-20 Cannes Summit in 2011), it was merely a circuitous way of stating the legal position without arousing the wrath of the people, as they well knew that if the truth was out, there would be a revolution and blood on the streets. It is therefore not surprising that the global central bankers came out with this nonsensical advisory:
“The objective of an effective resolution regime is to make feasible the resolution of financial institutions without severe systemic disruption and without exposing taxpayers to losses, while protecting vital economic functions through mechanisms which make it possible for shareholders and unsecured and uninsured creditors to absorb losses in a manner that respects the hierarchy of claims in liquidation.”(quoted in  FSB Consultative Document: Effective Resolution of Systemically …)
This is the kind of complex technical jargon used by bankers to confuse the people, especially depositors and to cover up what I have stated in plain and simple English in the foregoing paragraphs.
The key words of the BIS guideline are:
“without severe systemic disruptions” (i.e. bank runs),
“while protecting vital economic functions” (i.e. protecting vested interests – bankers),
“unsecured creditors” (i.e. your monies, you are the dummy),
“respects the hierarchy of claims in liquidation” (i.e. you are last in the queue to be paid, after all secured creditors have been paid).
This means all depositors are losers!
Please read this article carefully and spread it far and wide.
You will be doing a favour to all your fellow country men and women and more importantly, your family and relatives.

EU Backs Off Austerity

Limit Austerity, EU Official Says A top European Union official signaled his support Monday for relaxing Europe's austerity drive, in what could be a significant break for countries struggling to hit tough budget targets amid persistent economic weakness. In a speech, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said the policy of austerity pursued by the EU in recent years no longer has the public backing needed to work. – Wall Street Journal
Dominant Social Theme: Austerity will work if we maintain sufficient rigor.
Free-Market Analysis: Like the leaders of Germany's pre-war National Socialist Party, the leaders of the European Union have maintained an implacable rigor when it comes to the restatement and continued application of their failing policies.
The IMF-style austerity that they've have inflicted on Southern Europe with considerable blood-letting has shattered families, ripped apart communities and torn down the larger economic fabric. There is perhaps not a single economy that is the better, so far, for the stern medicine the IMF and the EU have been prescribing.
The problem lies in the cure, which despite the term "austerity" is hardly austere from a governmental perspective. Higher taxes, aggressive tax collection and increased regulation are all part of the equation that has been inflicted on the PIGS of Europe.
Interestingly, the speech by Barroso (see above excerpt) resolutely avoids these issues, preferring to concentrate (predictably) on money printing. Here's more from the article.
"While I think this policy is fundamentally right, I think it has reached its limits," Mr. Barroso said. "A policy to be successful not only has to be properly designed, it has to have the minimum of political and social support."
... In his speech, Mr. Barroso hinted that some countries could be given longer to get their budget deficit in line with EU rules, which ostensibly limit it to 3% of gross domestic product.
"Even if the policy of correcting deficit is fundamentally correct, we can always discuss fine-tuning of pace," he said. He noted, however, that EU finance ministers would have to agree to any
Spanish Finance Minister Luis de Guindos said on Sunday that his new budget plans to be presented later this week will emphasize economic growth and reduce the stress of spending cuts.
"What we are going to do now is strike a better balance between deficit reduction and economic growth," Mr. de Guindos said.
France is also appealing to the commission to get an extension to meet its targets. The country argues that while it won't meet the nominal target, it is on track to meet structural goals, which strip out the impact of a weaker economy.
The euro-zone economy has contracted for the five straight quarters to the end of 2012, with austerity contributing to declines in spending by households and businesses, and a rise in the unemployment rate to a record of 12%.
Official figures for the first quarter of 2013 will be released May 15, and most economists believe they will record a sixth quarter of decline. The IMF last week said it expects the euro zone's economy to contract again this year.
You can see that Barroso is calling for money printing, presumably via European Central Bank stimulus. While initially illegal, the five-year-old crisis has gradually blurred the lines between what is permissible and what is forbidden. A lot of what is taking place was never contemplated by European populations that voted initially for a trading consortium rather than a recreation of Charlemagne's empire.
But it was this latter concept that was always the goal of certain EU politicos and those who stood behind them. We've written numerous articles quoting various Eurocrats over the years who demanded an economic crisis to further European integration.
It is a purely cynical perspective – that the end justifies the means – but one that seems to have been adopted nonetheless. There are plenty of reasons to think the worst of the euro crisis could have been avoided, yet it has dragged on for five years.
To some degree, it may have been the Internet itself that has complicated the continent-spanning plans of top Eurocrats. Financial crises when properly manipulated are supposed to yield desired results without the larger population understanding the depth of its manipulation.
But what we call the Internet Reformation has thoroughly broadcast Brussels's manipulation, intended and otherwise. Now the euro itself is at risk and disgruntlement with the entire EU project has spread around the union.
Accordingly, we seem to be seeing – as we long ago predicted – a "step back" by the powers-that-be supporting the project. In Germany, there is discussion of the role of the euro and the emergence of an anti-euro party (see lead article this issue). And now there is this statement by Barroso, one of the most powerful Eurocrats.
It is too early to tell the outcome of these maneuverings. But Europe is generally in bad shape, Britain has long been in rebellion, the PIGS are in misery and there seems little economic respite on the horizon.
One would have to believe that even if Brussels has the idea of leveraging monetary policy, the moves being made now are not merely part of some larger, canny strategy but are sincerely derived from increasing pushback not only to "austerity" but to the euro itself.
If this is the case, then we are seeing evidence that despite their rhetoric, top Eurocrats are retreating from their determination to see the EU experiment through entirely on their terms.
Conclusion: These are significant moves that are now being discussed. At the same time (as with most issues regarding the EU) their significance is yet to be determined.

COMEX Hurtling Towards Default And People Will Be “Settled” With Dollars, No More Metal Will Be Delivered!

Comex Physical Drain Accelerates—With Over $7.8B In Gold Disappearing From All Depositories
As the headline battle between paper sellers and physical buyers of gold escalates, something eerily strange is continuing behind the scenes.
As first reported here on April 9thComex gold inventories have been plummeting, demonstrating the highest levels of physical removal ever during a single quarter in Q1, 2013.
Most shocking however, is that Comex warehouse inventories are accelerating their downward plunge, with dropping inventories now spreading to the world’s largest fund depositories.
Over the last four weeks alone, total reported inventories of ETFs, funds, and depositories collapsed by over 5.5 million ounces, or in dollar terms, by over $7,000,000,000 dollars.
http://bullmarketthinking.com/comex-physical-drain-accelerates-with-over-7-8b-disappearing-from-all-depositories/
This brings to mind important questions, such as…
-Why is there such a panic going on to remove physical gold from Comex registered warehouses and other depositories?
-Why did it begin before the collapse, and why does it now appear to be accelerating?
-Why is the multi-trillion dollar fund management industry denouncing gold, while it quickly moves inventory out of registered warehouses?
-Where is the gold moving, and what is it telling us?
-Is this wholesale migration signaling an imminent geopolitical or major market event?

SILVER DOCTORS:
The COMEX will default in the next week or several weeks and people will be “settled” with Dollars, no more metal will be delivered! So, knowing that “game over” has arrived, they are dumping a massive volume of paper contracts with impunity to push the metals prices as low as possible before the “default”. This way the “shorts” do not have to and will not be “covered” when “supply” cannot be obtained because of “an act of God”. They will be settled in cash (at a profit no less) because these “unforeseen” disruptions in supply. “Who could have seen it coming?” will be the mantra. I would suspect that banking stress and “bail ins” will also become prevalent globally. The pricing structure” will now push any and all physical sellers away from the markets and the “door” to safety is effectively being shut. Either you own metal or you don’t.

After the closure of the COMEX and LBMA doors there will be no availability and “price” will be meaningless.
 Your ability to protect yourself is right now for all intents and purposes being eliminated.

http://silverdoctors.com/force-majeur-was-the-end-game-all-along-comex-will-default-in-the-next-week/
ALERT NEWS FLASH DANGER TO U.S.A. COMEX Default According To Silver Doctors
In this MUST LISTEN interview, the Golden Jackass Jim Willie states that in the wake of the impending LBMA default that Andrew Maguire warned was in progress Monday, physical gold orders in size are being filled at the $2,000/oz price level, while the COMEX futures prices crashes and burns!
APMEX Silver Eagles Now As High As $10.49 Over Spot
Scroll down
Update…The 1993 is now $11.49 over spot.
U.K. Royal Mint Gold Coin Sales More Than Tripled in April
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-04-24/u-dot-k-dot-royal-mint-says-gold-coin-sales-more-than-tripled-in-april
Link was found at Zerohedge…along with some of their comments.

Gold Retraces Half Of Record Plunge
With its biggest 8-day rally in 20 months, Gold having jumped another 1% this evening has just breached $1445 and retraced half of the record plunge from April 12th. It would appear that the record physical demand that we are seeing in every corner of the globe is indeed leaking back into the actual price of gold.
Spot Gold has retraced half of its record plunge losses…

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-24/gold-retraces-half-record-plunge


French jobless claims hit all-time high in March


(Reuters) - The number of jobless people in France hit an all-time high in March, piling more gloom on cash-strapped households and fresh doubt on the government's pledge to reverse the unemployment trend by year-end.
The number of registered job seekers in mainland France rose by 1.2 percent to 3.225 million, marking a 23rd straight monthly rise and reaching the worst level since records began in January 1996, the labour ministry said on Thursday.
The new record, an 11.5 percent annual increase, is a symbolic blow to Socialist President Francois Hollande, whose approval ratings have sunk to the lowest of any modern French leader in recent months as jobless claims have soared.
Battling to make good on his promise to reverse the relentless rise in unemployment by the end of this year, Hollande has launched subsidised youth-job schemes and pushed through a reform to making hiring and firing more flexible.
Yet with a wave of industrial layoffs taking effect, the March jobless figure of 3,224,600 not only soared further above the 3 million level hit last August but beat the previous alltime record of 3,195,500 set in January 1997.
The labour ministry data is the most frequently reported jobs indicator in France, although it is not prepared according to International Labour Organisation standards nor expressed as a percentage of job seekers in the work force.

Loan Co-Signers Should Not Be On The Hook With The IRS If The Debt Is Forgiven

We’ve written numerous stories over the years about parents who co-signed student loans for their children and then were stuck with the payments when their child passed away or could not find employment. Sometimes lenders will choose to forgive that debt, but even then some are making a mistake that could continue to hurt the co-signer at tax time.
The Newark Star-Ledger’s Bamboozled column has yet another sad story of parents burdened with their son’s student loans after he died too young. It’s definitely an article worth reading, especially for a section at the end that talks about mistakes being made by lenders after a loan is forgiven.
What happens is that lenders report canceled debts in excess of $600 to the IRS with a 1099-C form. The canceled debt is generally considered to be income for the borrower, so the borrower should be including the info from the 1099-C on his tax return. Depending on the amount of the loan, this can have a noticeable impact on how much the borrower owes or receives as a refund from the IRS.
Bamboozled reports that some lenders have been sending 1099-C forms to co-signers of forgiven loans, which means that the co-signers’ tax returns could now be negatively affected. However, it turns out that co-signors should not be receiving these forms in the first place.
“Solely for purposes of the reporting requirements of this section, a guarantor is not a debtor,” a certified public accountant tells Bamboozled, citing Treasury Regulation Sec. 1.6050P-1(7). “(It states) that co-signers are not considered debtors for reporting purposes and that reporting is not appropriate with respect to a guarantor, whether or not there has been a default and demand for payment made upon the guarantor.”
He says that co-signers who receive a 1099-C in error should contact the lender and ask it to issue a correct form.
In a recent Q&A series, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Student Loan Ombudsman told Consumerist that some student loans have conditions that allow co-signers to be released from any debt obligation, usually after the borrower makes a certain number of on-time payments. If you are a co-signer on a loan, you should ask the borrower to talk to their lender to see if such a release is possible.

Gold Forecasts Split at $10,000 and $1000 as ETFs Sell, Central Banks Buy, Indian Dealers Cleaned Out

London Gold Market Report
from Adrian Ash, BullionVault
Thurs 25 Apr, 07:45 EST

Gold Forecasts Split at $10,000 and $1000 as ETFs Sell, Central Banks Buy, Indian Dealers Cleaned Out

WHOLESALE GOLD rose to an 8-session high just shy of $1450 per ounce in London trade Thursday morning, recovering 45% of this month’s near-record slump.

Asian stock markets also ticked higher, but European shares were flat while commodities extended their rally.

Silver prices were unchanged for the week so far at $23.30 per ounce.

Gold priced in Sterling fell £10 per ounce from an 8-session high of £946 as the Pound jump on news that the UK avoided recession – growing just 0.3% – in the first quarter of 2013.

“Gold is continuing [its] recovery,” says the daily comment from the commodities team at Germany’s Commerzbank.

“Rate-cut speculation ahead of next week’s [Eurozone central bank] meeting – and the prospect of continued ultra-loose US monetary policy following more weak economic figures – are lending buoyancy to the gold price.”

Investors who buy gold, writes Société Générale’s global strategist Albert Edwards in a new report, are making “a bet against central banks’ competency.”

Given central banks’ track record, he adds – repeating his team’s forecast of $10,000 gold – “that’s certainly a bet I’d be happy to still take.”

Money-creation leading to a surge in inflation is also the forecast from billionaire hedge-fund manager John Paulson, who reportedly told clients on a webinar Wednesday that he and his chief precious metals strategist – the highly respected former UBS analyst John Reade – are also “holding course” despite last week’s price crash.

Dutch bank ABN Amro however – which this month said “the demise of gold [was] still at an early stage” – today revised its $1000 gold forecast from end-2015 to the end of 2014.

“ETF [trust funds] still see sellers, but physical demand remains very strong,” says Moudi Raad at Swiss refining and finance group MKS.

New York’s giant SPDR Gold Trust yesterday shed another 4 tonnes of gold, taking the bullion held to back its shares down to the lowest level since the start of September 2009 at 1093 tonnes.

Over in India however – the world’s heaviest gold-buying nation – “We are unable to get supply,” Reuters quotes a state-bank dealer.

“Refiners have sold out till second or third week of May. Gold for immediate delivery is quoted at $10 on London prices.”

Latest data from the International Monetary Fund meantime show that emerging-market central banks again chose to buy gold for their reserves in March.

Russia led central-bank gold buying, adding 4.7 tonnes to reach 981 tonnes, while Turkey continued to pull in metal from its commercial banks, adding a further 33 tonnes to reach 409.

“I think physical and central banks…those buyers are supporting the market,” Reuters quotes Yuichi Ikemizu at Standard Bank in Tokyo.

“With this sharp decline in the price,” he adds, “I think South Korea is buying gold too. [It] always buys gold when the price comes off.”

Adrian Ash


Adrian Ash is head of research at BullionVault, the secure, low-cost gold and silver market for private investors online, where you can buy gold and silver in Zurich, Switzerland for just 0.5% commission.

(c) BullionVault 2013

Please Note: This article is to inform your thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for your money, and any decision you make will put your money at risk. Information or data included here may have already been overtaken by events – and must be verified elsewhere – should you choose to act on it.

Unemployment Crosses 6-million Mark In Spain

MADRID, April 25 (Bernama) -- The number of unemployed people in Spain has agone past the 6 million mark with over 27 percent of the population without a job in the first three months of 2013, the Spanish National Institute of Statistics said Thursday.

According to a survey, some 27.16 percent of the Spanish population are jobless and leaving almost 2 million households without a single family member holding a job, Xinhua news agency reported.

Figures would have been higher if many immigrants had not returned to their country of origin and young Spaniards had not emigrated to other countries.

Although the number of unemployed has risen by 237,400 in the first quarter of the year, the size of Spain's workforce had shrunk by 322,300.

Unemployment rose in nearly all of the regions in Spain with the largest increases witnessed in Andalusia, the Valencia Autonomous Community and Balearic Islands.

The first quarter of the year is traditionally a bad period for jobs in Spain in general and in those regions in particular, when it falls during off-peak tourist season and when the agricultural sector remains most quiet.

Tourist season in the second quarter of the year should bring some relief to those regions that are at the heart of the Spanish tourist industry.

Without positive signs of economic growth, improvement would be a short-term phenomenon and unemployment would continue to rise in the crisis-hit country.

-- BERNAMA

The Economic Argument Is Over — And Paul Krugman Won

For the past five years, a fierce war of words and policies has been fought in America and other economically challenged countries around the world.
On one side were economists and politicians who wanted to increase government spending to offset weakness in the private sector. This "stimulus" spending, economists like Paul Krugman argued, would help reduce unemployment and prop up economic growth until the private sector healed itself and began to spend again.
On the other side were economists and politicians who wanted to cut spending to reduce deficits and "restore confidence." Government stimulus, these folks argued, would only increase debt loads, which were already alarmingly high. If governments did not cut spending, countries would soon cross a deadly debt-to-GDP threshold, after which growth would be permanently impaired. The countries would also be beset by hyper-inflation, as bond investors suddenly freaked out and demanded higher interest rates. Once government spending was cut, this theory went, deficits would shrink and "confidence" would return.
This debate has not just been academic.
Those in favor of economic stimulus won a brief victory in the depths of the financial crisis, with countries like the U.S. implementing stimulus packages. But the so-called "Austerians" fought back. And in the past several years, government policies in Europe and the U.S. have been shaped by the belief that governments had to cut spending or risk collapsing under the weight of staggering debts.
Over the course of this debate, evidence has gradually piled up that the "Austerians" were wrong. Japan, for example, has continued to increase its debt-to-GDP ratio well beyond the supposed collapse threshold, and its interest rates have remained stubbornly low. More notably, in Europe, countries that embraced (or were forced to adopt) austerity, like the U.K. and Greece, have endured multiple recessions (and, in the case of Greece, a depression). Moreover, because smaller economies produced less tax revenue, the countries' deficits also remained strikingly high.
So the empirical evidence increasingly favored the Nobel-prize winning Paul Krugman and the other economists and politicians arguing that governments could continue to spend aggressively until economic health was restored.
And then, last week, a startling discovery obliterated one of the key premises upon which the whole austerity movement was based.
An academic paper that found that a ratio of 90%-debt-to-GDP was a threshold above which countries experienced slow or no economic growth was found to contain an arithmetic calculation error.
Once the error was corrected, the "90% debt-to-GDP threshold" instantly disappeared. Higher government debt levels still correlated with slower economic growth, but the relationship was not nearly as pronounced. And there was no dangerous point-of-no-return that countries had to avoid exceeding at all costs.
The discovery of this simple math error eliminated one of the key "facts" upon which the austerity movement was based.
It also, in my opinion, settled the "stimulus vs. austerity" argument once and for all.
The argument is over. Paul Krugman has won. The only question now is whether the folks who have been arguing that we have no choice but to cut government spending while the economy is still weak will be big enough to admit that.
The discovery of the calculation error, after all, came only a few months after the United States voluntarily cut spending through a government "sequester." This sequester is hurting the U.S. economy, and it is also depriving American citizens of some basic services--like a fully staffed air-traffic control system--that most first-world countries regard as a given in a developed economy. And with America's government deficit already shrinking (thanks to the rollback of some tax cuts and a modest increase in taxes), it is now even clearer that the sequester did not have to be adopted.
Yes, at some point, the American government needs to come together and figure out a smart long-term plan for containing healthcare and military costs, which are the real budget-busters in our government spending. That long-term plan does not need to be adopted immediately, however.
And in the meantime, for the sake of the country, it would be nice if our government came together and agreed to restore full funding for basic services.
Because the current state of government dysfunction in the United States is not just economically harmful. It is also embarrassing, depressing, and based on a premise that is now demonstrably false.
Tell Us What You Think!
Got a topic you’d like covered? Have a guest you’d like to see interviewed? Send an email to: thedailyticker@yahoo.com.
You can also look us up on Twitter and Facebook.
More from The Daily Ticker
The Recovery in Housing Is Behind Us: David Rosenberg
Why the Peak Resource Crowd Is Wrong